“Then how did you come on the island? Somebody must have made the first man.”
“No; man always was, and always will be.”
“But somebody must have made the first bow and arrow.”
“Yes; man made that.”
“If man made the first bow, then somebody must also have made man.”
“No; I do not understand it that way. Man did not make the trees. They grow from seeds or roots, and if there had been no seeds or roots there would have been no trees. Bows do not grow, they are made.”
Here was the savage philosophy.
“But if there is a great spirit, and you know that he makes the terrible winds and the lightnings and thunder, don’t you think he would help you if you should ask him?”
He mused for a while, and then answered slowly: “It would do no good, because if the Kurabus should pray to him at the same time we are praying to him, how would we know which side he would fight for? Sometimes we win, and sometimes they win, and the Great Spirit acts the same to everybody all the time.”
The boys could not help but smile at the character of this argument.