Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-05-29

Il D." 4
inside OF which the seeds ratified. l
had great fun with il for awhile. But
il was plaything, nothing more. And
yet IL was not long after this that the
using OF gourds for storing water be-
came the general practise Of the horde.
But ! was not the inventor. The hon
or was due 10 old Marrow Bone, and
il is fair to assume that it was the ne
cessity Of his great age that brought
about the innovation. - ......
IT any rate, the first member OF the
horde TO use gourds was Marrow Bone.
lie kept supply of drinking water in
his cave, which cave belonged TO his
son, the Hairless One, who permitted
him TO occupy corner of it. We used
10 see Marrow Bone filing his gourd
at the drinking place and carrying it
carefully up to his cave. Imitation
was strong in the folk, and first one
and then another and another procur-
ed gourd and usod IL In similar fash
ion, until Il was asgeneral practise with
ali Of US so TO store water.
Sometimes aid Marrow Bone had
sick spells and vas unable TO leave
the cave. Then IL was that the Hair
less One filed the gOurd for him. A
{! little later the Hairless One deputed
the task to Long Lip. his son. And
after that. even when Marrow Bone
was well again. Long Lip continued
carrying water for him. BY and by
except on unusual occasions, the men
never carried any water at all, leaving
the task to the women and larger chill
dren. Lop Ear and were independ-
ent We carried water only for our
selves, and we often Knocked the young
water carriers when they were called
away from play to ill the gourds.
Progress was slow with us. We
played through life, even the adults,
much in the same way that children
play, and We played as none of the
other animals played. What little we
learned was usually in the course of
play and was due to our curiosity and
keenness OF appreciation. For that
matter, the one big invention of the
horde during the time i lived with il
was the use of gourds. At first we
stored only water in the gourds, in
imitation Of old Marrow Bone.
But one day some one of the women
II do not know which one-filled a
gourd with blackberries and carried
it to the cave. In no time all the wo-
men were carrying berries and nuts
and roots in the gonrds., The idea,
once started, had to go on. Another
evolution of the carrying receptacle
was due to the women Without
doubt some womaKs gonrd was too
small, or else she had forgotten her
gourd. But be that as it may, she
ming the seams with twigs, and car.
ried home bigger quantity of berries
than could have been contained in the
largest gourd.
So far We got and no farther in the
transportation of supplies during the
years lived with the folk. 1t never
entered anybody's head to weave
basket out of willow withes. Some
times the men and women tied tough
vines about the bundles of ferns and
branches that they carried to the
caves to sleep upon Possibly in ten
or twenty generations we might have
worked up to the weaving of baskets.
And of this one thing is sure-if once
we wove withes into baskets the next
and inevitable step would have been
the weaving of cloth. Clothes would
have followed, and with covering our
nakedness would have come modesty.
Thus was momentum gained in the
younger world. But We were without
this momentum. We were just getting
started, and we could not go far in a
single generation. We were without
weapons, without fire and in the raw
beginning of speech. The device of
writing lay so far IN the future that
am appalled, when think of it.
Even | was once on the verge of a
great discovery. To show you how
fortuitous was development in those
days let me state that had it not been
for the gluttony of Lop Ear | might
have brought about the domestication
of the dog. And this was something
that the Fire People who lived to the
northeast had not yet achieved. They
were without dogs. This knew from
observation. But let me tell you how
Lop Ears gluttony possibly set back
our social development many genera
tions.
great swamp, but to the south lay a
stretch OF low. rocky hills. These
were little frequented for two reasons.
First of all, there was no food there of
the kind we ate, and next, those rocky
kills were filed with the Hairs of car
nivorous beasts
But Lop Ear and | strayed over to
the hills one day. We would not have
strayed had we not been teasing IL
ger. Please do not laugh. Ii was old
Saber Tooth himself. We were per
fectly safe. We CHANGED upon him in
the forest early in the morning, and
from the safety of the branches over.
head We Chartered down at him our
dislike and hatred. And from branch
to branch and from tree to tree we
followed overhead, making an internal
row and warning all the forest dwell
ers that old Saber Tooth was coming
We spoiled his hunting for him, any.
way. And We made him good and
hungry. He snarled at US and dashed
his tail, and sometimes he paused and