“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.”
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.