Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-05-30

| Impossible for any woman To live with
! him, and yet they did live with him,
out OF compulsion. There was no gain.
1 saying him. No man was strong
enough TO stand against him.
/ often do have visions OF the quiet
hour before the wilight From drink
/ ing place and carrot patch and berry
swamp the folk are trooping into the
open space before the caves. They
dare liDger no later than this, for the
dreadful darkness Is approaching, in
which the world is given over to the
carnage of the hunting animals. while
the foreunners OF man hide trembling
ly in their holes.
There yet remain TO us few min
utes before we climb to our caves. We
are tired from the play of the day, and
| the sounds we make are subdued.
Even the cubs, still greedy for fun and
! antics, play with restraint. The wind
! from the sea has died down, and the
shadows are lengthening with the last
of the suns descent. And then sud-
| denly from Red Eyes cave breaks a
wild screaming and the sound OF
blows. He is beating his wife.
At first an awed silence comes upon
us. But as the blows and screams
continue we break out into an insane
gibbering of helpless rage. 1t is plain
| that the men resent Red Eyes actions,
but they are too afraid of him. The
blow cease. and low groaning dies
away, while we chatter among our.
selves and the sad twilight creeps up
on US.
We, to whom most happenings were
Jokes, never laughed during Red Eyes
wife beatings We knew too we'll the
tragedy of them. On more than one
morning, at the base of the cliff, did
we find the body Of his latest wife. He
had tossed her there, after she had
died, from his cave mouth. He never
buried his dead. The task of carrying
away the bodies, that else would have
polluted our abiding place, he left to
the horde. We usually hung them into
the river below the last drinking place.
Not alone did Red Eye murder his
wives, but he also murdered for his
wives, in order to get them. When he
wanted a new wife and selected the
wife of another man. he promptly kill.
ed that man. Two of these murders |
saw myself. The whole horde knew.
but could do nothing. We had not yet
developed any government to speak of
inside the horde We had certain GUS
toms and visited our wrath upon the
unlucky ones who violated those Gus
toms. Thus, for example, the indi-
yidual who defled q drinking place
would be attacked by every onlooker
while one who deliberately gave q
false alarm was the recipient of much
rough usage at our hands. But Red
Eve walked roughshod over all our
customs, and we so feared him that we
we're incapable of the collective action
necessary to punish them.
Il was during the sixth winter in
our cave that Lop Ear and | discover.
ed that we were really growing up.
From the first it had been a squeeze
TO get In through the entrance crevice.
This had had its advantages, however.
II had prevented the larger folk from
taking our cave away from US. And
II was a most desirable cave, the high
est on the bluff, the safest, and in win
ter the smallest and warmest.
To show the stage of the mental de-
yelopment of the folk may state that
II would have been simple thing for
some of them to have driven us OUT
and enlarged the creyice opening. But
they never thought of it Lcp Ear and
| did not think of it either until our
increasing size compelled us to make
an enlargement. This occurred when
summer was we'll along and We were
fat with better forage. We worked
at the crevice in spells, when the fan
cy struck us.
At first We dug the crumbling rocks
away with our fingers, until our nails
got sore, when accidentally stumbled
upon the idea OF using piece of wood
on the rock This worked well; also
il worked woe. One morning early we
had scratched out Of the wall quite a
heap of fragments. | gave the heap
a shove oyer the lip of the entrance.
The next moment there came up from
below q howl Of rage. There was no
need to look We knew the voice only
too well. The rubbish had descended
upon Red Eye.
CONSERVATION. A minute later he was
at the entrance, peering in at US with
his infamed eyes and raging like
demon. But he was too large. He
could not get into US. Suddenly he
went away. This was suspicious. BY
all we knew of folk nature he should
have remained and had out his rage.
crept TO the entrance and peeped
down. I could see him Just beginning
70 mount the bluff again. In one hand
he carried long stick. Before Ecould
divine his plan he was back at the en-
trance and savagely jabbing the stick
in at us.
His thrusts were prodigious. They
could have disemboweled us. We
shrank hack against the side walls,
where We were almost out of range
But by industrious poking he got US
now and again-cruel. scraping jabs
with the end OF the stick that raked
OF the hide and hair. When we
screamed with the hurt he roared his