The First Days of Man, as Narrated Quite Simply for Young Readers

by Frederic Arnold Kummer

KA-MA THE TRAVELLER

Ka-Ma was a young man who was very restless and unhappy in the valley. Ever since a child he had heard the story of Tul and Ni-Va, and how they went out from the valley and found the sea, which the valley people called the Great Water. Tul and Ni-Va had been dead for a very long time, but still the old men, who had heard the tale from their grandfathers, told it about the fires at night, until the story became a legend, and Tul and Ni-Va were spoken of as children of the gods.

None of the valley people had ever tried to find the Great Water again; they were happy and contented where they were, and had no wish to travel so far from their fires, their caves. But Ka-Ma, who listened to the story with eager eyes, vowed that some day, when he grew to be a man, he too would brave the unknown dangers of which the old men spoke, and make his way to the river, and from there to the ocean.

He forgot this plan, when he grew older, but sometimes at night it would come to him again, and make him restless and sad. But still he did not go.

There was a young girl in the valley called Tula, and she and Ka-Ma had played together when they were children. They liked each other very much, and when they grew older, they fell in love with each other, and wanted to marry.

In those days, when a young man saw a girl he liked, he would go to the rocks in the hillside and prepare himself a cave. Then he would hunt for her through the valley until he found her, and when she saw him coming, she would run, trying to escape him, yet hoping in her heart, if she liked him, that he would be swift enough to catch her.

Then, if the young man did catch her, he would take her in his arms and carry her to the cave he had made ready, and it would be their home from that time on.

Now Tula was swift, and strong, with long yellow hair, and smooth white teeth, and as she grew up, Ka-Ma said to himself that he would take Tula for his wife.

But Tor, who was the strongest man in the tribe, and was called its chief, also liked Tula, and wanted her for himself. He had many other wives, but none of them was as young and swift and strong as Tula. So one day, Tor, seeing Tula bathing in the river, waited for her in the rushes beside the bank. When she came out, he struck her lightly over the head with his stone axe, and then took her in his arms and began to carry her to his cave.

Ka-Ma, who had also been waiting for Tula, saw this and it made him very angry. At first he crept along after Tor, afraid to do anything, because Tor was the chief of the tribe, but soon his anger and courage rose, at the sight of Tula in Tor's arms, and he ran up, axe in hand, and demanded that Tor let her go.