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

by Frederic Arnold Kummer

The chief roared at him, and beating his breast with his fist, told Ka-Ma to go away, but Ka-Ma stood his ground, for he saw that Tula who had now recovered her senses, was smiling at him. Then Tor dropped the woman, and drawing the axe from his girdle, came at Ka-Ma to kill him.

The chief was very strong, but Ka-Ma was younger and more active and quick. For a long time the two fought, so that they were wounded on the shoulders, and arms and chest, and the blood ran down their bodies to the ground. Then Tula, who wanted Ka-Ma to win, picked up a stone and threw it at Tor, and struck him on the side of the head, so that for a moment he was stunned. With a great shout Ka-Ma raised his axe, and springing forward, brought it down with all his might upon Tor's skull. The heavy, sharp axe broke through the bone, and into Tor's brain, and he fell to the ground dead.

Ka-Ma was frightened by what he had done, for he knew that Tor had many friends, who would seek to kill him. So he hid the body beneath some leaves, and telling Tula to wait for him, he went back to his cave, and got his spear, and his bow and arrows, and tied what food he had in a piece of skin and hung it over his shoulders. Then he returned to the place where he had left Tula, and together they fled from the valley.

Ka-Ma, remembering what he had heard about the journey of Tul and Ni-Va to the Great Water, made up his mind that he and Tula would go there too. The story told by the men said that the path lay along the edge of the great marsh, to a river, many times bigger than the one in the valley, and that here the travellers had been sent a log boat by the gods. Ka-Ma made his way along the marsh, with Tula following him, carrying the bundle of food.

It took them three days to reach the wide river, because twice they lost their way, but at last they found themselves on its banks. There was no log boat in sight, however, and Ka-Ma made up his mind to build a raft. He hunted through the woods until he found eight or ten smaller logs, and these he tied together with thin strong vines, like grapevines, which he tore from the trees. Then he and Tula got on the raft and began to drift down the river.

Suddenly a shower of stones and arrows began to fall about them, and looking toward the shore, they saw a number of the valley people, friends of Tor, who had followed them to the river. Ka-Ma snatched up his bow to return the fire, while Tula, whose mind was very quick, began to paddle the raft toward the opposite shore with Ka-Ma's broad-bladed spear. It was slow work, and meanwhile the stones and arrows kept on falling about them, but moving along in the river current, they were a hard mark to hit. So while a few of the arrows and stones struck the raft, they did no harm. Tula kept on paddling and the raft slowly began to drift in toward the farther shore, and finally grounded in the mud. Snatching up their weapons and food the two voyagers quickly waded to the bank and hid behind a clump of trees.

Their pursuers, however, did not give up the chase. Soon they began to bring logs from the forest, and Ka-Ma saw that they, too, were building a raft. There were five of them in all and they worked very quickly. In a little while a second raft started across the river, on which were four of the men. The fifth stayed on the other bank. The four who stood on the raft paddled very hard with their spears, as they had seen Tula do, and soon the clumsy craft was in the middle of the stream. Then Ka-Ma took his bow, and fitted an arrow to it. Very carefully he took aim, and fired. One of the paddlers on the raft fell, with an arrow through his shoulder. The others, however, came on.

Again Ka-Ma fired, this time at closer range, and again his arrow found a mark in one of the men. Then, as the raft drifted toward the shore, Tula began hurling stones at it.

Unable to shoot their arrows with careful aim while on the shaky raft, the two who were unhurt began to retreat, paddling furiously in their haste to get back out of range. One of the men, who had been killed by an arrow from Ka-Ma's bow, they pushed from the raft into the river. In a moment the snouts of huge crocodile-like creatures appeared from the water, and the body of the dead man was torn to pieces.