It took them several days to build the hut, and meanwhile, Ka-Ma had speared fish along the river bank, and shot some wild birds with his bow and arrow, so that Tula and himself might have food. Having been used to eating their food smoked, or cooked, they did not like the raw birds and fish so much, but they had no fire, and knew of no way to get any. So they made the best of what they had.
Here Ka-Ma and his wife Tula lived for many years, and their children grew up, and built other huts in the little grove, and thus was formed the first tribe of men to live by the sea. Because the way they lived was different from the way in which their forefathers had lived in the valley, they too became different. They ate more fish, and less meat, and because they killed but few animals, they did not use skins for clothing, but as we shall see later, began to weave a coarse grass-cloth out of the rushes they found in the marsh. They became great swimmers, built rough canoes out of wicker, covered with skins, and because it was not easy to spear fish in the deep waters of the river, the way it had been in the great marsh, they one day invented the fishhook. All these things, however, we shall tell about in another chapter.
CHAPTER XV
THE SEA PEOPLE
As Ka-Ma's children grew up, he taught them all the things he knew, how to make weapons and tools of stone, how to dry and season wood, for spear handles, and bows and arrows, how to make cord of fish guts, or the twisted stems of marsh grasses, how to spear fish, use the sling, and shoot with the bow. But he could not teach them how to make pottery, for he could find no clay, and worst of all, there was no fire with which to burn it, even if he had found the clay.
The young people, who had never seen fire, and did not know what it was, were quite content to eat their food raw, for they had never tasted it any other way, but Ka-Ma thought every day of the Sacred Fire, and wished that in some way he could get it again.
Sometimes, when he was drilling a hole in a bit of shell, or in a stick of wood, with a sharp-pointed piece of flint, it seemed to him that the drill grew very hot, but no fire came.
One day Ka-Ma took the dried shell of a nut which he had found in the forest, and after cutting off one end, began to drill a hole in each side of it. Through these holes he meant to run a cord. Not having any bowls or jars of pottery in which to carry water, he thought he could make a sort of water bottle out of the large nut. Then, when he went hunting, or fishing, he could carry the bottle about his shoulders by means of the cord, and so have fresh water to drink during the long, hot day. He had never done this in the valley, because there was plenty of water all about, sweet and fresh, but here all the water was salt, except in the little pool near his hut, and so he either had to carry some with him or go thirsty.