The Apes of Cocoanut Hill, however, who placed little confidence in Shoozoo’s stories, placed less in his promises; although the next generation, which accepted him as the founder of their religion, believed him to be a better man, and accepted his stories as history and his promises as prophecy; so that what was incredible to contemporaries became indisputable to posterity; and the traditions that gathered about his name were sufficient to silence the doubts in a generation later which they had raised in a generation before. In course of time the bigger stories only gained credence, the rest being forgotten; so that what was received with most distrust was handed down with most confidence; and the farther they got from the time of their performance the easier it was thought to be to get at the truth about them.
For many generations every alligator that was killed was opened in order to find the moon; and, though it was often claimed to be found, there was never as much confidence in the story of its recovery as of its loss; for the Apes early learned to distinguish between religious stories, and only accepted those for which there was adequate evidence. The uninterrupted testimony of the fathers, which had come down in regular succession, and had never been doubted, was deemed the best evidence. Apes have accordingly differed about the incidentals of the story; for many accounts have come down about the details, which are not to be reconciled; but as to the great essentials—that the holy Shoozoo actually did knock off a piece of the moon, and that an alligator swallowed it—there is a substantial agreement; and as often as the moon, in generations later, appeared in crescent form, the festival of the Holy Crescent was celebrated by throwing sharpened stones in the air in honor of the great exploit of their Founder, Shoozoo.
But, though Shoozoo, who passed in one generation for a liar, and in the next for a God, left a questionable heritage to the Apes, they still retained out of his age something of substantial value. The use of implements was invented, and the arts of making and using them were handed down to Monkeys and Men.
CHAPTER V.
After the savage beasts had been driven from the region of Cocoanut Hill, and the Apes had come down from the trees, and were habitually on the ground, they found themselves encountering new dangers. The snakes were troublesome. The snakes had, indeed, been troublesome before, but it was mainly when they climbed the trees for birds’ nests or fruits. The Apes did not then encounter them so often, and amid the greater dangers from the four-footed beasts, did not find it necessary to make war against them. But now, when the Apes walked more on the ground, they met the snakes oftener, and under more disagreeable circumstances. The snakes, moreover, had greatly multiplied since the destruction of the savage beasts, many of which devoured, or fought with, snakes, or else lived on the same food. With the departure, accordingly, of the enemies of the serpents, and their increase of sustenance, the serpents became powerful, and at last threatened to drive the Apes from the region. It became dangerous to walk abroad, especially near the Swamp. At night they disturbed the slumbers of the Apes. Shoozoo declared that he once found two in his ear when he awoke, and that he had swallowed some big ones during the night, although Shamboo declared contemptuously that he only had worms.
Many precautions were, from time to time, taken against the snakes. Some of the Apes persisted in still sleeping in the trees. Most of them, however, sought holes in the ground and caves in the rocks, which they fortified by piling brush and earth at the entrance; while others, not finding holes conveniently at hand, dug them and covered them with brush, so as to form a mound. The race had thus begun to build, and one of the first arts—architecture—was founded. The home originated in a fight against the serpent.
The snakes, however, soon attacked these homes, and all the more eagerly because of the food stored in them. For the Apes found that they could put their structures to many uses not before known. They would hold their provisions, as well as themselves, and would protect such provisions from the weather, as well as from the snakes, and so preserve them for a longer time. Their homes accordingly became store-houses, and this facility for keeping provisions by storage stimulated the collection of them. Instead of gathering only what they wanted to eat at the time, the Apes now picked up all they could find, and placed it in their dug-outs. They soon learned to allow nothing to go to waste, and became economical. They even collected when they did not want anything, from the mere fact that they could store it, and thus became provident. They believed they might want in the future, and so often stored large quantities; for some Apes early became avaricious. They got in time to be as proud of their possessions as of their homes, and often gathered from a feeling of ambition. Shoozoo claimed that he had enough fruits in his mound to feed all the Apes of Cocoanut Hill for a lifetime; which nobody of that generation believed, and nobody of the next doubted.