“After that the rest of us crept back, and, somehow, perhaps because we were in fear and felt the need for one another, we talked the thing over.  It was our first council—­our first real council.  And in that council we formed our first tribe.  For we had learned the lesson.  Of the ten Meat-Eaters, each man had had the strength of ten, for the ten had fought as one man.  They had added their strength together.  But of the thirty families and the sixty men of us, we had had the strength of but one man, for each had fought alone.

“It was a great talk we had, and it was hard talk, for we did not have the words then as now with which to talk.  The Bug made some of the words long afterward, and so did others of us make words from time to time.  But in the end we agreed to add our strength together and to be as one man when the Meat-Eaters came over the divide to steal our women.  And that was the tribe.

“We set two men on the divide, one for the day and one for the night, to watch if the Meat-Eaters came.  These were the eyes of the tribe.  Then, also, day and night, there were to be ten men awake with their clubs and spears and arrows in their hands, ready to fight.  Before, when a man went after fish, or clams, or gull-eggs, he carried his weapons with him, and half the time he was getting food and half the time watching for fear some other man would get him.  Now that was all changed.  The men went out without their weapons and spent all their time getting food.  Likewise, when the women went into the mountains after roots and berries, five of the ten men went with them to guard them.  While all the time, day and night, the eyes of the tribe watched from the top of the divide.

“But troubles came.  As usual, it was about the women.  Men without wives wanted other men’s wives, and there was much fighting between men, and now and again one got his head smashed or a spear through his body.  While one of the watchers was on top of the divide, another man stole his wife, and he came down to fight.  Then the other watcher was in fear that some one would take his wife, and he came down likewise.  Also, there was trouble among the ten men who carried always their weapons, and they fought five against five, till some ran away down the coast and the others ran after them.

“So it was that the tribe was left without eyes or guards.  We had not the strength of sixty.  We had no strength at all.  So we held a council and made our first laws.  I was but a cub at the time, but I remember.  We said that, in order to be strong, we must not fight one another, and we made a law that when a man killed another him would the tribe kill.  We made another law that whoso stole another man’s wife him would the tribe kill.  We said that whatever man had too great strength, and by that strength hurt his brothers in the tribe, him would we kill that his strength might hurt no more.  For, if we let his strength hurt, the brothers would become afraid and the tribe would fall apart, and we would be as weak as when the Meat-Eaters first came upon us and killed Boo-oogh.