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

by Frederic Arnold Kummer

When they were all in place, Ma-Ya took more reeds and wove them in and out lengthwise of the boat, between the ribs, making a coarse basket-work, just as he had done in making his coracle. The framework of the boat, when done, looked like a coarse wicker basket made in the shape of a canoe.

For a covering, Ma-Ya used the back part of the hide of a great walrus he and some of his companions had killed upon the rocks. This hide, while still moist and soft, was placed upon the wicker framework and drawn over the upper edges, or gunwales, of the boat and fastened with thongs. At either end the hide was stretched tightly upward, and bound to the tops of the two posts or uprights at stem and stern. There were no openings or seams in the hide whatever, so that there could be no leaks. When the hide had become dry, it stretched tightly over the frame, and became very hard and tough, yet the canoe was so light that Ma-Ya could lift it in his two hands.

He placed it in the water, and with a paddle such as the sea people used for their rafts, climbed aboard.

It did not take him long to find out that his canoe was very easily upset. If he leaned too much to one side or the other, it would turn over, and leave him to drag it ashore and empty the water out of it before trying again. After a while, however, he got used to the new boat, and found that with a few strokes of his paddle he could send it through the water at great speed. His companions, who had laughed at it, at first, soon saw that Ma-Ya had made something that would be very useful in fishing, and in getting about on the water, and they too began to build boats of wicker-work, covered with skins. Up to now, the sea people had found it very hard to paddle their heavy rafts up the river, owing to the strong current, but in the swift, light canoes they could go wherever they pleased.

Ma-Ya's idea, however, was not to go up the river, so much as it was to sail on the ocean. As soon as he had learned how to manage his new craft, he allowed the current to sweep him through the river mouth and out on the broad surface of the sea. It was a quiet day, with no wind blowing, and Ma-Ya found that his little craft rode the long ocean swells as lightly as a cork. He paddled about for several hours, delighted with his success, and then drove his new boat back into the river mouth and pulled it up on the shore.

The next day he told one of his brothers of his plan to try to cross the Great Water and see what was on the other side, and the two adventurers placed provisions, and some jars of water, in the canoe, and started out.

This time, however, there was a strong wind blowing from the ocean, making its surface very rough. What had seemed to be only tiny waves, from the shore, turned out to be dangerous white-caps, which swept over the frail craft ready to fill it with water. The wind, too, became stronger, so that Ma-Ya and his companion could hardly paddle against it. Stronger and stronger grew the gale, and more and more weary grew the arms of the two paddlers. Soon they saw that instead of making any headway, they were being slowly driven back toward the shore. Their water jars had been upset by the plunging of the boat as it tossed in the waves, and more and more spray came aboard with every gust of wind. Ma-Ya became afraid, and told his companion they must try to paddle back to the mouth of the river.

This, however, they soon found they could not do. The gale had driven them a mile or more down the beach, and they could not force the boat back against it. Light as it was, and floating on the surface of the water like a leaf, it was at the mercy of the wind. In a few moments the two voyagers saw that they were being driven right toward the surf which thundered on the sandy beach. They paddled furiously, trying to keep the bow of the canoe pointed toward the shore, and waited to see what would happen. The great breakers lifted the tiny craft in their arms as though it had been a speck of foam, and hurled it round and round toward the beach. In the twinkling of an eye it was filled with water, upset, and Ma-Ya and his companion were left struggling in the waves. Luckily they were strong and fearless swimmers, and after a long fight, managed to make their way through the surf, almost battered to pieces. The sea folk, who were gathered on the shore watching them, ran down into the water and pulled them up on the beach. The little canoe was washed in and out again for many minutes, rolling over and over in the boiling surf like a huge fish, but at last it too came tumbling upon the sands, crushed and broken. The sea people pulled it up out of reach of the waves, and Ma-Ya gazed at it sadly. He knew now that while his frail craft was good enough for sailing on the river, it would never do for crossing the Great Water. So he made up his mind to think of something else.

It was many years before Ma-Ya made his next boat, and this time it was of wood.

He knew that the shape of his little canoe had been right, but that to stand the waves of the Great Water it would have to be made of something much stronger and more solid than wicker, covered with skin. The only thing he knew of was wood, yet his brain, which was only just beginning to think, told him no way in which he could make a boat out of wood.