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.