The Thinking Rocks by C. Allan Butkus

jump back to get away.  The snake was broken.  It could
not move the way it did before.  I picked up a large rock and crushed its
head.  Then I used my spear to cut its head off.  The snake was dead.
I went to the stream to drink and wash the blood from the spear.  When I
had finished, I left my spear at the stream and climbed back to the kill. 
I grabbed the snake by the tail.”  Cano demonstrated by reaching down and
grasping the tail of the snakeskin with his right hand.  He made a quick
snapping motion and the opposite end spun around and struck him in the chest
area.  He let out a surprised cry of pain and fear as he rolled away. 
The movement of the snake and Cano's rolling and tumbling across the ground
sent a ripple of fear and a collective gasp through the clan. His cry was
echoed by most who were near the snake. "There was blood at my throat and
I was hurt from my fall back to the streambed.  A short time ago, I was a
brave hunter, now I was a hunter who was dying.  I sat down and waited for
Death to come. I thought, How foolish I am. I was killed by a dead snake."
    Cano
slowly rose to his feet and continued. "The snake had not moved.  I sat
there for some time, and then I started to feel hungry.  Why would I feel
hungry if I was dying?  I touched my throat and found the blood was
drying.  I couldn't feel any holes from the snake's teeth.  Then I
realized that the snake had no head, it could not have killed me. The Great
Spirit was watching and I had been given a lesson to learn.  I sat
thinking about this and thanked the Great Spirit for sparing my life.  It
was then that I started to understand the lesson. As I had the power to kill
the snake, so did the snake have the power to kill the lizard.  I had
forgotten to honor the spirit of the snake.  The most valuable thing the
snake had was its life, and I had taken it away. And I scorned it.  Why
not?  It was dead and I had killed it, I was mighty.  The Great
Spirit showed me that I could die as quickly as the snake had died.  I
thought about it and realized this is the way it should be.  We are all
creatures of the Great Spirit.
    "The
Great Spirit showed me the mistakes I had made.  I thought the dead are
dead and can't kill.  Then I was taught that we must honor those we kill,
for their life is a gift from the Great Spirit.  Our life can be taken as
easily as the one we take."  Cano paused a moment and then nodded to
Koonai.
    The
Medicine Man waited until Cano was seated with the clan and then said in a
booming voice, “The Great Spirit watches and teaches, we must learn the lessons
that he gives us.  We are less than nothing if we don't follow the Great
Spirit."  He turned, and faced the fire.  He cast something into
the fire, which caused a burst of green flames. He turned and faced the clan.
"The Great Spirit has sent us another message today.  Gennos come
forward with the message. "Gennos shuffled from behind the fire where he
had been waiting.  The pain in his legs was forgotten tonight for he had a
treasure to present.  He carried something wrapped in a gray
deerskin.  When he reached Koonai, he started to hand it to him, but was
stopped by a shake of Koonai’s head.  "You show them the gift."
    He
unwrapped one of the Great Spirit's greatest gifts, a new tool.  He stood
in front of the fire and held it in both hands above his head.  It was not
a hand ax; it was a true ax with a wooden handle.
    It had taken man
about three million years to reach this point in time.  This was more than
a tool; it was a tool to make other tools.  Each of its parts was of
little value, but combined they far exceeded their parts.  It had no
innate intelligence; it could be used for good or evil.  It could kill or
defend. Build or destroy.  The world would never be the same again.
    Gennos explained
how he came to have it, as he had to Cano.  Most of the clan could see no
use for it.  The old way worked, and it was simple and easy to