“It was very strange.  When Little-Belly caught too many fish, so that it took a great many to sell for a little money, he threw many of the fish back into the sea, so that more money would be paid for what was left.  And Three-Legs often let many large fields lie idle so as to get more money for his corn.  And the women, making so much money out of shell that much money was needed to buy with, Dog-Tooth stopped the making of money.  And the women had no work, so they took the places of the men.  I worked on the fish-trap, getting a string of money every five days.  But my sister now did my work, getting a string of money for every ten days.  The women worked cheaper, and there was less food, and Tiger-Face said we should become guards.  Only I could not become a guard because I was lame of one leg and Tiger-Face would not have me.  And there were many like me.  We were broken men and only fit to beg for work or to take care of the babies while the women worked.”

Yellow-Head, too, was made hungry by the recital and broiled a piece of bear-meat on the coals.

“But why didn’t you rise up, all of you, and kill Three-Legs and Pig-Jaw and Big-Fat and the rest and get enough to eat?” Afraid-in-the-Dark demanded.

“Because we could not understand,” Long-Beard answered.  “There was too much to think about, and, also, there were the guards sticking spears into us, and Big-Fat talking about God, and the Bug singing new songs.  And when any man did think right, and said so, Tiger-Face and the guards got him, and he was tied out to the rocks at low tide so that the rising waters drowned him.

“It was a strange thing—­the money.  It was like the Bug’s songs.  It seemed all right, but it wasn’t, and we were slow to understand.  Dog-Tooth began to gather the money in.  He put it in a big pile, in a grass house, with guards to watch it day and night.  And the more money he piled in the house the dearer money became, so that a man worked a longer time for a string of money than before.  Then, too, there was always talk of war with the Meat-Eaters, and Dog-Tooth and Tiger-Face filled many houses with corn, and dried fish, and smoked goat-meat, and cheese.  And with the food, piled there in mountains the people had not enough to eat.  But what did it matter?  Whenever the people grumbled too loudly the Bug sang a new song, and Big-Fat said it was God’s word that we should kill Meat-Eaters, and Tiger-Face led us over the divide to kill and be killed.  I was not good enough to be a guard and lie fat in the sun, but, when we made war, Tiger-Face was glad to take me along.  And when we had eaten, all the food stored in the houses we stopped fighting and went back to work to pile up more food.”

“Then were you all crazy,” commented Deer-Runner.