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.