The Strength of the Strong(强人之强)

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The Strength of the Strong

The Strength of the

Strong

by Jack London

The Strength of the Strong

THE STRENGTH OF THE

STRONG

"Parables don't lie, but liars will parable." - Lip-King.

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. Their heads

were matted with uncut hair, long locks of which often strayed before their

eyes, beady and black and glittering like the eyes of birds. They were

narrow between the eyes and broad between the cheeks, while their lower

jaws were projecting and massive.

It was a night of clear starlight, and below them, stretching away

remotely, lay range on range of forest-covered hills. In the distance the

heavens were red from 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 in front of them blazed a fire. At one side,

partly devoured, lay the carcass of a bear, with about it, at a respectable

distance, several large dogs, shaggy and wolf-like. Beside each man lay

his bow and arrows and a huge club. In the cave-mouth a number of rude

spears leaned against the rock.

"So that was how we moved from the cave to the tree," old Long-

Beard spoke up.

They laughed boisterously, like big children, at recollection of a

previous story his words called up. Long-Beard laughed, too, the five-

inch bodkin of bone, thrust midway through the cartilage of his nose,

leaping and dancing and adding to his ferocious appearance. He did not

The Strength of the Strong

exactly say the words recorded, but he made animal-like sounds with his

mouth that meant the same thing.

"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 thirty families, but we got no strength from one another. We

were in fear of each other all the time. No one ever paid visits. In the

top of our tree we built a grass house, and on the platform outside was a

pile of rocks, which were for the heads of any that might chance to try to

visit us. Also, we had our spears and arrows. We never walked under the

trees of the other families, either. My brother did, once, under old Boo-

oogh's tree, and he got his head broken and that was the end of him.

"Old Boo-oogh was very strong. It was said he could pull a grown

man's head right off. I never heard of him doing it, because no man

would give him a chance. 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 got her 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 her back. He was afraid. Old

Boo-oogh made faces at him.

"But father did not mind. Strong-Arm was another strong man. He

was one of the best fishermen. But one day, climbing after sea- gull eggs,

he had a fall from the cliff. He was never strong after that. He coughed

a great deal, and his 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 and threw rocks at him. It was our way in those

days. We did not know how to add strength together and become

strong."

"Would a brother take a brother's wife?" Deer-Runner demanded.

"Yes, if he had gone to live in another tree by himself."

"But we do not do such things now," Afraid-of-the-Dark objected.

"It is because I have taught your fathers better." Long-Beard thrust

his hairy paw into the bear meat and drew out a handful of suet, which he

sucked with a meditative air. Again he wiped his hands on his naked

The Strength of the Strong

sides and went on. "What I am telling you happened in the long ago,

before we knew any better."

"You must have been fools not to know better," was Deer-Runner's

comment, Yellow-Head grunting approval.

"So we were, but we became bigger fools, as you shall see. Still, we

did learn better, and this was the way of it. We Fish-Eaters had not

learned to add our strength 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. Each family of us got into its own cave and tree.

There were only ten Meat-Eaters, but they fought together, and we fought,

each family by itself."

Long-Beard counted long and perplexedly on his fingers.

"There were sixty men of us," was what he managed to say with

fingers and lips combined. "And we were very strong, only we did not

know it. So we watched the ten men attack Boo-oogh's tree. He made a

good fight, but he had no chance. We looked on. When some of the

Meat-Eaters tried to climb the 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, shot him full of arrows. And that was the end

of Boo-oogh.

"Next, the Meat-Eaters got One-Eye and his family in his cave. They

built a fire 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 were killing him and his grown son, the rest of us ran away. They

caught some of our women, and killed two old men who could not run fast

and several children. The women they carried away with them to the Big

Valley.

"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

The Strength of the Strong

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

The Strength of the Strong

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.

"Knuckle-Bone was a strong man, a very strong man, and he knew not

law. He knew only his own strength, and in the fullness thereof he went

forth and took the wife of Three-Clams. Three-Clams tried to fight, but

Knuckle-Bone clubbed out his brains. Yet had Knuckle- Bone forgotten

that all the men of us had added our strength to keep the law among us,

and him we killed, at the foot of his tree, and hung his body on a branch as

a warning that the law was stronger than any man. For we were the law,

all of us, and no man was greater than the law.

"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 many things, little things, that it was a great trouble to call all

the men together to have a council about. We were having councils

morning, noon, and night, and in 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 their weapons always in their hands

and got no food for themselves.

"We stood in need of a chief man to do these things, who would be the

voice of the council, and who would account to the council for the things

he did. So we named Fith-Fith the chief man. He was a strong man,

too, and very cunning, and when he was angry he made noises just like

that, FITH-FITH, like a wild-cat.

"The ten men who guarded the tribe were set to work making a wall of

stones across the narrow part of the valley. The women and large

children helped, as did other men, until the wall was strong. After that, all

the families came down out of their caves and trees and built grass houses

behind the shelter of the wall. These houses were large and much better

than the caves and trees, and everybody had a better time of it because the

The Strength of the Strong

men had added their strength together and become a tribe. Because of

the wall and the guards and the watchers, 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 who walked with a stick - Three-Legs got

the seed of the wild corn and planted it in the ground in the valley near his

house. Also, he tried planting fat roots and other things he found in the

mountain valleys.

"Because of the safety in the Sea Valley, which was because of the

wall and the watchers and the guards, and because there was food in

plenty for all without having to fight for it, many families came in from

the coast valleys on both sides and from the high back mountains where

they had lived more like wild 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, which had been free to all and belonged to

all, was divided up. Three-Legs began it when he planted corn. But

most of us did not care about the land. We thought the marking of the

boundaries with fences of stone was a foolishness. We had plenty to eat,

and what more did we want? I remember that my father and I built stone

fences for Three-Legs and were given corn in return.

"So only a few got all the land, and Three-Legs got most of it. Also,

others that had taken land gave it to the few that held on, being paid in

return with corn and fat roots, and bear-skins, and fishes which the farmers

got from the fishermen in exchange for corn. And, the first thing we

knew, all the land was gone.

"It was about this time that Fith-Fith died and Dog-Tooth, his son, was

made chief. He demanded to be made chief anyway, because his father

had been chief before him. Also, he looked upon himself as a greater

chief than his father. He was a good chief at first, and worked hard, so

that the council had less 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 spirits of the dead. Later we called him

Big-Fat, because he ate over- much, and did no work, and grew round and

large. One day Big-Fat told us that the secrets of the dead were his, and

The Strength of the Strong

that he was the voice of God. He became great friends with Dog-Tooth,

who commanded that we should build Big-Fat a grass house. And Big-

Fat put taboos all around this house and kept God inside.

"More and more Dog-Tooth became greater than the council, and

when the council grumbled and said it would name a new chief, Big-Fat

spoke with the voice of God and said no. Also, Three-Legs and the

others who held the land stood behind Dog-Tooth. Moreover, the

strongest man in the council was Sea-Lion, and him the land-owners gave

land to secretly, along with many bearskins and baskets of corn. So Sea-

Lion said that Big-Fat's voice was truly the voice of God and must be

obeyed. And soon afterward Sea-Lion was named the voice of Dog-

Tooth and did most of his talking for him.

"Then there was Little-Belly, a little man, so thin in the middle that he

looked as if he had never had enough to eat. Inside the mouth of the

river, after the sand-bar had combed the strength of the breakers, he built a

big fish-trap. No man had ever seen or dreamed a fish-trap before. He

worked weeks on it, with his son and his wife, while the rest of us laughed

at their labours. But, when it was done, the first day he caught more fish

in it than could the whole tribe in a week, whereat there was great

rejoicing. There was only one other place in the river for a fish-trap, but,

when my father and I and a dozen other men started to make a very large

trap, the guards came from the big grass-house we had built for Dog-Tooth.

And the guards poked us with their spears and told us begone, because

Little-Belly was going to build a trap there himself on the word of Sea-

Lion, who was the voice of Dog-Tooth.

"There was much grumbling, and my father called a council. But,

when he rose to speak, him the Sea-Lion thrust through the throat with a

spear and he died. And Dog-Tooth and Little-Belly, and Three-Legs and

all that held land said it was good. And Big-Fat said it was the will of

God. And after that all men were afraid to stand up in the council, and

there was no more council.

"Another man, Pig-Jaw, began to keep goats. He had heard about it

as among the 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

The Strength of the Strong

gone hungry, were glad to work for Pig-Jaw, caring for his goats, guarding

them from wild dogs and tigers, and driving them to the feeding pastures

in the mountains. In return, Pig-Jaw gave them goat-meat to eat and

goat-skins to wear, and sometimes they traded the goat-meat for fish and

corn and fat roots.

"It was this time that money came to be. Sea-Lion was the man who

first thought 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. One basket out of every three of corn was theirs, one fish out of

every three, one goat out of every three. In return, they fed the guards

and the watchers, and kept the rest for themselves. Sometimes, when a

big haul of fish was made they did not know what to do with all their share.

So Sea- Lion set the women to making money out of shell - little round

pieces, with a hole in each one, and all made smooth and fine. These were

strung on strings, and the strings were called money.

"Each string was of the value of thirty fish, or forty fish, but the

women, who made a string a day, were given two fish each. The fish

came out of the shares of Dog-Tooth, Big-Fat, and Sea-Lion, which they

three did not eat. So all the money 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 they would take their share of goats and

cheese in money. Thus, a man who had nothing, worked for one who had,

and was paid in money. With this money he bought corn, and fish, and

meat, and cheese. And Three- Legs and all owners of things paid Dog-

Tooth and Sea-Lion and Big- Fat their share in money. And they paid the

guards and watchers in money, and the guards and watchers bought their

food with the money. And, because money was cheap, Dog-Tooth made

many more men into guards. And, because money was cheap to make, a

number of men began to make money out of shell themselves. But the

guards stuck spears in them and shot them full of arrows, because they

were trying to break up the tribe. It was bad to break up the tribe, for

then the Meat-Eaters would come over the divide and kill them all.

"Big-Fat was the voice of God, but he took Broken-Rib and made him

The Strength of the Strong

into a priest, so that he became the voice of Big-Fat and did most of his

talking for him. 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 their grass houses and carry messages for them and give

commands. And more and more were men taken away from work, so

that those that were left worked harder than ever before. It seemed that

men desired to do no work and strove to seek out other ways whereby men

should work for them. Crooked-Eyes found such a way. He made the

first fire-brew out of corn. And thereafter he worked no more, for he

talked secretly with Dog-Tooth and Big-Fat and the other 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 all men

bought. And many strings of money did he give Dog-Tooth and Sea-

Lion and all of them.

"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 and second only to God that Big-Fat kept in his taboo house,

and Dog-Tooth said so, too, and wanted to know who were they to

grumble about how many wives he took. Dog-Tooth had a big canoe

made, and, many more men he took from work, who did nothing and lay

in the sun, save only when Dog-Tooth went in the canoe, when they

paddled for him. And he made Tiger-Face head man over all the guards,

so that Tiger-Face became his right arm, and when he did not like a man

Tiger-Face killed that man for him. And Tiger-Face, also, made another

man to be his right arm, and to give commands, and to kill for him.

"But this was the strange thing: as the days went by we who were

left worked harder and harder, and yet did we get less and less to eat."

"But what of the goats and the corn and the fat roots and the fish-

trap?" spoke up Afraid-of-the-Dark, "what of all this? Was there not

more food to be gained by man's work?"

"It is so," Long-Beard agreed. "Three men on the fish-trap got more

fish than the whole tribe before there was a fish-trap. But have I not said

we were fools? The more food we were able to get, the less food did we

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TheStrengthoftheStrong1TheStrengthoftheStrongbyJackLondonTheStrengthoftheStrong2THESTRENGTHOFTHESTRONG"Parablesdon'tlie,butliarswillparable."-Lip-King.OldLong-Beardpausedinhisnarrative,lickedhisgreasyfingers,andwipedthemonhisnakedsideswherehisonepieceofraggedbearskinfailedtocoverhim.Crouchedaroundhi...

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