The Strength of the Strong E-Book

Jack London

• Herausgeber: ShadowPOET
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Old Long-Beard paused in his narrative, licked his greasy fingers, and wiped them on his naked sides where his one piece of ragged bearskin failed to cover him. Crouched around him, on their hams, were three young men, his grandsons, Deer-Runner, Yellow-Head, and Afraid-of-the-Dark. In appearance they were much the same. Skins of wild animals partly covered them. They were lean and meagre of build, narrow-hipped and crooked-legged, and at the same time deep-chested, with heavy arms and enormous hands. There was much hair on their chests and shoulders, and on the outsides of their arms and legs.

Leseprobe

TheStrengthoftheStrong

ByJackLondon

Publisher: ShadowPOET

THESTRENGTHOFTHESTRONG

Parablesdon’tlie,butliarswillparable.

—Lip-King.

OLDLong-Beard paused in his narrative, licked his greasy fingers, and wipedthemonhisnakedsideswherehisonepieceofraggedbearskinfailedtocoverhim.Crouchedaroundhim,ontheirhams,werethreeyoungmen,hisgrandsons,Deer-Runner,Yellow-Head,andAfraid-of-the-Dark.Inappearance they were much the same.Skins of wild animals partly coveredthem.They were lean and meagre of build, narrow-hipped and crooked-legged, and at the same time deep-chested, with heavy arms and enormoushands. There was much hair on their chests and shoulders, and on the outsidesof their arms and legs.Their heads were matted with uncut hair, long locks ofwhich often strayed before their eyes, beady and black and glittering like theeyes of birds.They were narrow between the eyes and broad between thecheeks,whiletheirlowerjawswereprojectingandmassive.

Itwasanightofclearstarlight,andbelowthem,stretchingawayremotely,layrange on range of forest-covered hills.In the distance the heavens were redfrom the glow of a volcano.At their backs yawned the black mouth of a cave,out of which, from time to time, blew draughty gusts of wind.Immediately infrontofthemblazedafire.Atoneside,partlydevoured,laythecarcassofa

bear, with about it, at a respectable distance, several large dogs, shaggy andwolf-like.Beside each man lay his bow and arrows and a huge club.In thecave-mouthanumberofrudespearsleanedagainsttherock.

“So that was how we moved from the cave to the tree,” old Long-Beard spokeup.

Theylaughedboisterously,likebigchildren,atrecollectionofapreviousstoryhis words called up.Long-Beard laughed, too, the five-inch bodkin of bone,thrust midway through the cartilage of his nose, leaping and dancing andaddingtohisferociousappearance.Hedidnotexactlysaythewordsrecorded, but he made animal-like sounds with his mouth that meant the samething.

“And that is the first I remember of the Sea Valley,” Long-Beard went on.“We were a very foolish crowd.We did not know the secret of strength.For,behold, each family lived by itself, and took care of itself.There were thirtyfamilies, but we got no strength from one another.We were in fear of eachother all the time.No one ever paid visits.In the top of our tree we built agrass house, and on the platform outside was a pile of rocks, which were forthe heads of any that might chance to try to visit us.Also, we had our spearsand arrows. We never walked under the trees of the other families, either. Mybrother did, once, under old Boo-oogh’s tree, and he got his head broken andthatwastheendofhim.

“Old Boo-oogh was very strong. It was said he could pull a grown man’s headright off.I never heard of him doing it, because no man would give him achance.Father wouldn’t.One day, when father was down on the beach, Boo-oogh took after mother.She couldn’t run fast, for the day before she had gother leg clawed by a bear when she was up on the mountain gathering berries.So Boo-oogh caught her and carried her up into his tree.Father never got herback.Hewasafraid.OldBoo-ooghmadefacesathim.

“But father did not mind.Strong-Arm was another strong man.He was oneof the best fishermen.But one day, climbing after sea-gull eggs, he had a fallfrom the cliff.He was never strong after that.He coughed a great deal, andhis shoulders drew near to each other.So father took Strong-Arm’s wife.When he came around and coughed under our tree, father laughed at him andthrew rocks at him.It was our way in those days.We did not know how toaddstrengthtogetherandbecomestrong.”

“Wouldabrothertakeabrother’swife?”Deer-Runnerdemanded.“Yes,ifhehadgonetoliveinanothertreebyhimself.”

“Butwedonotdosuchthingsnow,”Afraid-of-the-Darkobjected.

“It is because I have taught your fathers better.”Long-Beard thrust his hairypaw into the bear meat and drew out a handful of suet, which he sucked with ameditative air.Again he wiped his hands on his naked sides and went on.“WhatIamtellingyouhappenedinthelongago,beforeweknewanybetter.”

“You must have been fools not to know better,” was Deer-Runner’s comment,Yellow-Headgruntingapproval.

“So we were, but we became bigger fools, as you shall see.Still, we did learnbetter, and this was the way of it.We Fish-Eaters had not learned to add ourstrength until our strength was the strength of all of us.But the Meat-Eaters,who lived across the divide in the Big Valley, stood together, hunted together,fished together, and fought together. One day they came into our valley. Eachfamily of us got into its own cave and tree.There were only ten Meat-Eaters,buttheyfoughttogether,andwefought,eachfamilybyitself.”

Long-Beardcountedlongandperplexedlyonhisfingers.

“There were sixty men of us,” was what he managed to say with fingers andlips combined.“And we were very strong, only we did not know it.So wewatched the ten men attack Boo-oogh’s tree.He made a good fight, but hehad no chance.We looked on.When some of the Meat-Eaters tried to climbthe tree, Boo-oogh had to show himself in order to drop stones on their heads,whereupon the other Meat-Eaters, who were waiting for that very thing, shothimfullofarrows.AndthatwastheendofBoo-oogh.

“Next, the Meat-Eaters got One-Eye and his family in his cave.They built afire in the mouth and smoked him out, like we smoked out the bear there to-day.Then they went after Six-Fingers, up his tree, and, while they werekilling him and his grown son, the rest of us ran away.They caught some ofour women, and killed two old men who could not run fast and severalchildren.ThewomentheycarriedawaywiththemtotheBigValley.

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

“Itwasagreattalkwehad,anditwashardtalk,forwedidnothavethewordsthenasnowwithwhichtotalk.TheBugmadesomeofthewordslong

afterward, and so did others of us make words from time to time.But in theend we agreed to add our strength together and to be as one man when theMeat-Eaterscameoverthedividetostealourwomen.Andthatwasthetribe.

“We set two men on the divide, one for the day and one for the night, to watchif the Meat-Eaters came. These were the eyes of the tribe. Then, also, day andnight, there were to be ten men awake with their clubs and spears and arrowsin their hands, ready to fight.Before, when a man went after fish, or clams, orgull-eggs, he carried his weapons with him, and half the time he was gettingfood and half the time watching for fear some other man would get him.Nowthat was all changed.The men went out without their weapons and spent alltheir time getting food.Likewise, when the women went into the mountainsafter 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 ofthedivide.

“But troubles came.As usual, it was about the women.Men without wiveswanted other men’s wives, and there was much fighting between men, andnow and again one got his head smashed or a spear through his body.Whileone of the watchers was on top of the divide, another man stole his wife, andhe came down to fight.Then the other watcher was in fear that some onewould take his wife, and he came down likewise.Also, there was troubleamong the ten men who carried always their weapons, and they fought fiveagainstfive,tillsomeranawaydownthecoastandtheothersranafterthem.

“So it was that the tribe was left without eyes or guards.We had not thestrength of sixty.We had no strength at all.So we held a council and madeour first laws.I was but a cub at the time, but I remember.We said that, inorder to be strong, we must not fight one another, and we made a law thatwhen a man killed another him would the tribe kill. We made another law thatwhosostoleanotherman’swifehimwouldthetribekill.Wesaidthatwhatever man had too great strength, and by that strength hurt his brothers inthe tribe, him would we kill that his strength might hurt no more.For, if welet his strength hurt, the brothers would become afraid and the tribe would fallapart, and we would be as weak as when the Meat-Eaters first came upon usandkilledBoo-oogh.

“Knuckle-Bonewasastrongman,averystrongman,andheknewnotlaw.He knew only his own strength, and in the fullness thereof he went forth andtook the wife of Three-Clams.Three-Clams tried to fight, but Knuckle-Boneclubbed out his brains.Yet had Knuckle-Bone forgotten that all the men of ushad added our strength to keep the law among us, and him we killed, at thefoot of his tree, and hung his body on a branch as a warning that the law wasstrongerthananyman.Forwewerethelaw,allofus,andnomanwasgreater

thanthelaw.

“Then there were other troubles, for know, O Deer-Runner, and Yellow-Head,and Afraid-of-the-Dark, that it is not easy to make a tribe.There were manythings, little things, that it was a great trouble to call all the men together tohave a council about. We were having councils morning, noon, and night, andin the middle of the night.We could find little time to go out and get food,because of the councils, for there was always some little thing to be settled,such as naming two new watchers to take the place of the old ones on the hill,or naming how much food should fall to the share of the men who kept theirweaponsalwaysintheirhandsandgotnofoodforthemselves.

“We stood in need of a chief man to do these things, who would be the voiceof the council, and who would account to the council for the things he did.Sowe named Fith-Fith the chief man.He was a strong man, too, and verycunning, and when he was angry he made noises just like that, fith-fith, like awild-cat.

“The ten men who guarded the tribe were set to work making a wall of stonesacross the narrow part of the valley.The women and large children helped, asdid other men, until the wall was strong.After that, all the families camedown out of their caves and trees and built grass houses behind the shelter ofthe wall.These houses were large and much better than the caves and trees,andeverybodyhadabettertimeofitbecausethemenhadaddedtheirstrengthtogether and become a tribe.Because of the wall and the guards and thewatchers, there was more time to hunt and fish and pick roots and berries;there was more food, and better food, and no one went hungry.And Three-Legs, so named because his legs had been smashed when a boy and whowalked with a stick—Three-Legs got the seed of the wild corn and planted itin the ground in the valley near his house. Also, he tried planting fat roots andotherthingshefoundinthemountainvalleys.

“Because of the safety in the Sea Valley, which was because of the wall andthe watchers and the guards, and because there was food in plenty for allwithout having to fight for it, many families came in from the coast valleys onboth sides and from the high back mountains where they had lived more likewild animals than men.And it was not long before the Sea Valley filled up,and in it were countless families.But, before this happened, the land, whichhad been free to all and belonged to all, was divided up.Three-Legs began itwhen he planted corn. But most of us did not care about the land. We thoughtthe marking of the boundaries with fences of stone was a foolishness.We hadplenty to eat, and what more did we want?I remember that my father and IbuiltstonefencesforThree-Legsandweregivencorninreturn.

“So only a few got all the land, and Three-Legs got most of it.Also, othersthat had taken land gave it to the few that held on, being paid in return withcorn and fat roots, and bear-skins, and fishes which the farmers got from thefishermen in exchange for corn. And, the first thing we knew, all the land wasgone.

“It was about this time that Fith-Fith died and Dog-Tooth, his son, was madechief.He demanded to be made chief anyway, because his father had beenchief before him.Also, he looked upon himself as a greater chief than hisfather.He was a good chief at first, and worked hard, so that the council hadless and less to do. Then arose a new voice in the Sea Valley. It was Twisted-Lip. We had never thought much of him, until he began to talk with the spiritsof the dead.Later we called him Big-Fat, because he ate over-much, and didno work, and grew round and large. One day Big-Fat told us that the secretsof the dead were his, and that he was the voice of God.He became greatfriendswithDog-Tooth,whocommandedthatweshouldbuildBig-Fatagrasshouse.AndBig-FatputtaboosallaroundthishouseandkeptGodinside.

“More and more Dog-Tooth became greater than the council, and when thecouncil grumbled and said it would name a new chief, Big-Fat spoke with thevoice of God and said no.Also, Three-Legs and the others who held the landstood behind Dog-Tooth. Moreover, the strongest man in the council was Sea-Lion,andhimtheland-ownersgavelandtosecretly,alongwithmanybearskins and baskets of corn. So Sea-Lion said that Big-Fat’s voice was trulythe voice of God and must be obeyed.And soon afterward Sea-Lion wasnamedthevoiceofDog-Toothanddidmostofhistalkingforhim.

“Then there was Little-Belly, a little man, so thin in the middle that he lookedas if he had never had enough to eat.Inside the mouth of the river, after thesand-bar had combed the strength of the breakers, he built a big fish-trap.Noman had ever seen or dreamed a fish-trap before. He worked weeks on it, withhis son and his wife, while the rest of us laughed at their labours.But, when itwasdone,thefirstdayhecaughtmorefishinitthancouldthewholetribeinaweek, whereat there was great rejoicing.There was only one other place inthe river for a fish-trap, but, when my father and I and a dozen other menstartedtomakeaverylargetrap,theguardscamefromthebiggrass-housewehad built for Dog-Tooth.And the guards poked us with their spears and toldus begone, because Little-Belly was going to build a trap there himself on thewordofSea-Lion,whowasthevoiceofDog-Tooth.

“There was much grumbling, and my father called a council.But, when herose to speak, him the Sea-Lion thrust through the throat with a spear and hedied.And Dog-Tooth and Little-Belly, and Three-Legs and all that held landsaiditwasgood.AndBig-FatsaiditwasthewillofGod.Andafterthatall

menwereafraidtostandupinthecouncil,andtherewasnomorecouncil.

“Another man, Pig-Jaw, began to keep goats.He had heard about it as amongthe Meat-Eaters, and it was not long before he had many flocks.Other men,who had no land and no fish-traps, and who else would have gone hungry,were glad to work for Pig-Jaw, caring for his goats, guarding them from wilddogs and tigers, and driving them to the feeding pastures in the mountains.Inreturn,Pig-Jawgavethemgoat-meattoeatandgoat-skinstowear,andsometimestheytradedthegoat-meatforfishandcornandfatroots.

“It was this time that money came to be.Sea-Lion was the man who firstthought of it, and he talked it over with Dog-Tooth and Big-Fat.You see,these three were the ones that got a share of everything in the Sea Valley. Onebasket out of every three of corn was theirs, one fish out of every three, onegoat out of every three.In return, they fed the guards and the watchers, andkept the rest for themselves.Sometimes, when a big haul of fish was madethey did not know what to do with all their share.So Sea-Lion set the womentomakingmoneyoutofshell—littleroundpieces,withaholeineachone,andall made smooth and fine.These were strung on strings, and the strings werecalledmoney.

“Each string was of the value of thirty fish, or forty fish, but the women, whomade a string a day, were given two fish each. The fish came out of the sharesof Dog-Tooth, Big-Fat, and Sea-Lion, which they three did not eat.So all themoney belonged to them.Then they told Three-Legs and the other land-owners that they would take their share of corn and roots in money, Little-Belly that they would take their share of fish in money, Pig-Jaw that theywould take their share of goats and cheese in money.Thus, a man who hadnothing, worked for one who had, and was paid in money. With this money hebought corn, and fish, and meat, and cheese.And Three-Legs and all ownersofthingspaidDog-ToothandSea-LionandBig-Fattheirshareinmoney.Andthey paid the guards and watchers in money, and the guards and watchersbought their food with the money.And, because money was cheap, Dog-Tooth made many more men into guards.And, because money was cheap tomake, a number of men began to make money out of shell themselves. Butthe guards stuck spears in them and shot them full of arrows, because theywere trying to break up the tribe.It was bad to break up the tribe, for then theMeat-Eaterswouldcomeoverthedivideandkillthemall.

“Big-Fat was the voice of God, but he took Broken-Rib and made him into apriest, so that he became the voice of Big-Fat and did most of his talking forhim.And both had other men to be servants to them.So, also, did Little-Belly and Three-Legs and Pig-Jaw have other men to lie in the sun about theirgrasshousesandcarrymessagesforthemandgivecommands.Andmoreand

more were men taken away from work, so that those that were left workedharder than ever before.It seemed that men desired to do no work and stroveto seek out other ways whereby men should work for them.Crooked-Eyesfound such a way.He made the first fire-brew out of corn.And thereafter heworked no more, for he talked secretly with Dog-Tooth and Big-Fat and theother masters, and it was agreed that he should be the only one to make fire-brew.But Crooked-Eyes did no work himself.Men made the brew for him,and he paid them in money.Then he sold the fire-brew for money, and allmenbought.AndmanystringsofmoneydidhegiveDog-ToothandSea-Lionandallofthem.

“Big-Fat and Broken-Rib stood by Dog-Tooth when he took his second wife,and his third wife.They said Dog-Tooth was different from other men andsecond only to God that Big-Fat kept in his taboo house, and Dog-Tooth saidso,too,andwantedtoknowwhoweretheytogrumbleabouthowmanywiveshe took. Dog-Tooth had a big canoe made, and, many more men he took fromwork, who did nothing and lay in the sun, save only when Dog-Tooth went inthe canoe, when they paddled for him.And he made Tiger-Face head manover all the guards, so that Tiger-Face became his right arm, and when he didnotlikeamanTiger-Facekilledthatmanforhim.AndTiger-Face,also,madeanothermantobehisrightarm,andtogivecommands,andtokillforhim.

“But this was the strange thing: as the days went by we who were left workedharderandharder,andyetdidwegetlessandlesstoeat.”

“But what of the goats and the corn and the fat roots and the fish-trap?” spokeup Afraid-of-the-Dark, “what of all this?Was there not more food to begainedbyman’swork?”

“It is so,” Long-Beard agreed.“Three men on the fish-trap got more fish thanthe whole tribe before there was a fish-trap.But have I not said we werefools?Themorefoodwewereabletoget,thelessfooddidwehavetoeat.”

“But was it not plain that the many men who did not work ate it all up?”Yellow-Headdemanded.

Long-Beardnoddedhisheadsadly.

“Dog-Tooth’s dogs were stuffed with meat, and the men who lay in the sunand did no work were rolling in fat, and, at the same time, there were littlechildrencryingthemselvestosleepwithhungerbitingthemwitheverywail.”

Deer-Runner was spurred by the recital of famine to tear out a chunk of bear-meat and broil it on a stick over the coals.This he devoured with smackinglips,whileLong-Beardwenton:

“When we grumbled Big-Fat arose, and with the voice of God said that Godhad chosen the wise men to own the land and the goats and the fish-trap, andthe fire-brew, and that without these wise men we would all be animals, as inthedayswhenwelivedintrees.

“And there arose one who became a singer of songs for the king.Him theycalled the Bug, because he was small and ungainly of face and limb andexcelled not in work or deed.He loved the fattest marrow bones, the choicestfish, the milk warm from the goats, the first corn that was ripe, and the snugplace by the fire.And thus, becoming singer of songs to the king, he found away to do nothing and be fat.And when the people grumbled more and more,and some threw stones at the king’s grass house, the Bug sang a song of howgood it was to be a Fish-Eater.In his song he told that the Fish-Eaters werethe chosen of God and the finest men God had made.He sang of the Meat-Eaters as pigs and crows, and sang how fine and good it was for the Fish-Eaters to fight and die doing God’s work, which was the killing of Meat-Eaters.The words of his song were like fire in us, and we clamoured to be ledagainst the Meat-Eaters. And we forgot that we were hungry, and why we hadgrumbled, and were glad to be led by Tiger-Face over the divide, where wekilledmanyMeat-Eatersandwerecontent.

“But things were no better in the Sea Valley.The only way to get food was towork for Three-Legs or Little-Belly or Pig-Jaw; for there was no land that aman might plant with corn for himself.And often there were more men thanThree-Legs and the others had work for.So these men went hungry, and sodid their wives and children and their old mothers. Tiger-Face said they couldbecome guards if they wanted to, and many of them did, and thereafter theydidnoworkexcepttopokespearsinthemenwhodidworkandwhogrumbledatfeedingsomanyidlers.

“Andwhenwegrumbled,evertheBugsangnewsongs.HesaidthatThree-LegsandPig-Jawandtherestwerestrongmen,andthatthatwaswhytheyhadsomuch.Hesaidthatweshouldbegladtohavestrongmenwithus,elsewouldweperishofourownworthlessnessandtheMeat-Eaters.Therefore,weshouldbegladtoletsuchstrongmenhavealltheycouldlayhandson.AndBig-FatandPig-JawandTiger-Faceandalltherestsaiditwastrue.

“‘All right,’ said Long-Fang, ‘then will I, too, be a strong man.’And he gothimself corn, and began to make fire-brew and sell it for strings of money.And, when Crooked-Eyes complained, Long-Fang said that he was himself astrong man, and that if Crooked-Eyes made any more noise he would bash hisbrains out for him.Whereat Crooked-Eyes was afraid and went and talkedwith Three-Legs and Pig-Jaw.And all three went and talked to Dog-Tooth.AndDog-ToothspoketoSea-Lion,andSea-Lionsentarunnerwithamessage

to Tiger-Face.And Tiger-Face sent his guards, who burned Long-Fang’shouse along with the fire-brew he had made.Also, they killed him and all hisfamily.And Big-Fat said it was good, and the Bug sang another song abouthow good it was to observe the law, and what a fine land the Sea Valley was,and how every man who loved the Sea Valley should go forth and kill the badMeat-Eaters.Andagainhissongwasasfiretous,andweforgottogrumble.

“It was very strange. When Little-Belly caught too many fish, so that it took agreat many to sell for a little money, he threw many of the fish back into thesea, so that more money would be paid for what was left.And Three-Legsoften let many large fields lie idle so as to get more money for his corn.Andthe women, making so much money out of shell that much money was neededtobuywith,Dog-Toothstoppedthemakingofmoney.Andthewomenhadnowork, so they took the places of the men.I worked on the fish-trap, getting astring of money every five days.But my sister now did my work, getting astring of money for every ten days.The women worked cheaper, and therewas less food, and Tiger-Face said we should become guards.Only I couldnot become a guard because I was lame of one leg and Tiger-Face would nothave me.And there were many like me.We were broken men and only fit tobegforworkortotakecareofthebabieswhilethewomenworked.”

Yellow-Head,too,wasmadehungrybytherecitalandbroiledapieceofbear-meatonthecoals.

“But why didn’t you rise up, all of you, and kill Three-Legs and Pig-Jaw andBig-Fatandtherestandgetenoughtoeat?”Afraid-in-the-Darkdemanded.