第17章 HOW THE FIRST LETTER WAS WRITTEN(4)

'I wanted the Stranger-man to fetch Daddy's spear,so I drawded it,'said Taffy.'There wasn't lots of spears.There was only one spear.I drawded it three times to make sure.I couldn't help it looking as if it stuck into Daddy's head--there wasn't room on the birch-bark;and those things that Mummy called bad people are my beavers.I drawded them to show him the way through the swamp;and I drawded Mummy at the mouth of the Cave looking pleased because he is a nice Stranger-man,and I think you are just the stupidest people in the world,'said Taffy.'He is a very nice man.Why have you filled his hair with mud?Wash him!'

Nobody said anything at all for a longtime,till the Head Chief laughed;then the Stranger-man (who was at least a Tewara)laughed;then Tegumai laughed till he fell down flat on the bank;then all the Tribe laughed more and worse and louder.The only people who did not laugh were Teshumai Tewindrow and all the Neolithic ladies.They were very polite to all their husbands,and said 'Idiot!'ever so often.

Then the Head Chief of the Tribe of Tegumai cried and said and sang,'OSmall-person-with-out-any-manners-who-ought-to-be-spanked,you've hit upon a great invention!'

'I didn't intend to;I only wanted Daddy's black-handled spear,'

said Taffy.

'Never mind.It is a great invention,and some day men will call it writing.At present it is only pictures,and,as we have seen to-day,pictures are not always properly understood.But a time will come,O Babe of Tegumai,when we shall make letters--all twenty-six of 'em,--and when we shall be able to read as well as to write,and then we shall always say exactly what we mean without any mistakes.Let the Neolithic ladies wash the mud out of the stranger's hair.'

'I shall be glad of that,'said Taffy,'because,after all,though you've brought every single other spear in the Tribe of Tegumai,you've forgotten my Daddy's black-handled spear.'

Then the Head Chief cried and said and sang,'Taffy dear,the next time you write a picture-letter,you'd better send a man who can talk our language with it,to explain what it means.I don't mind it myself,because I am a Head Chief,but it's very bad for the rest of the Tribe of Tegumai,and,as you can see,it surprises the stranger.'

Then they adopted the Stranger-man (a genuine Tewara of Tewar)into the Tribe of Tegumai,because he was a gentleman and did not make a fuss about the mud that the Neolithic ladies had put into his hair.But from that day to this (and I suppose it is all Taffy's fault),very few little girls have ever liked learning to read or write.Most of them prefer to draw pictures and play about with their Daddies--just like Taffy.

THERE runs a road by Merrow Down--

A grassy track to-day it is An hour out of Guildford town,Above the river Wey it is.

Here,when they heard the horse-bells ring,The ancient Britons dressed and rode To watch the dark Phoenicians bring Their goods along the Western Road.

And here,or hereabouts,they met To hold their racial talks and such--To barter beads for Whitby jet,And tin for gay shell torques and such.

But long and long before that time (When bison used to roam on it)Did Taffy and her Daddy climb That down,and had their home on it.

Then beavers built in Broadstone brook And made a swamp where Bramley stands:

And hears from Shere would come and look For Taffimai where Shamley stands.

The Wey,that Taffy called Wagai,Was more than six times bigger then;And all the Tribe of Tegumai They cut a noble figure then!