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Children of the Frost

Page 5

by Children Of The Frost (Pg) [Lit]


  covering of the bidarka about me so that no water could get in, and all of

  the night I fought with the storm. And in the morning there was no land,—

  only the sea,—and the off- shore wind held me close in its arms and bore

  me along. Three such nights whitened into dawn and showed me no land,

  and the off-shore wind would not let me go.

  "And when the fourth day came, I was as a madman. I could not dip my

  paddle for want of food; and my head went round and round, what of the

  thirst that was upon me. But the sea was no longer angry, and the soft

  south wind was blowing, and as I looked about me I saw a sight that made

  me think I was indeed mad."

  Nam-Bok paused to pick away a sliver of salmon lodged between his

  teeth, and the men and women, with idle hands and heads craned forward,

  waited.

  "It was a canoe, a big canoe. If all the canoes I have ever seen were made

  into one canoe, it would not be so large."

  There were exclamations of doubt, and Koogah, whose years were many,

  shook his head.

  "If each bidarka were as a grain of sand," Nam-Bok defiantly continued,

  "and if there were as many bidarkas as there be grains of sand in this

  beach, still would they not make so big a canoe as this I saw on the

  morning of the fourth day. It was a very big canoe, and it was called a

  schooner. I saw this thing of wonder, this great schooner, coming after me,

  and on it I saw men—"

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  "Hold, O Nam-Bok!" Opee-Kwan broke in. "What manner of men were

  they?—big men?"

  "Nay, mere men like you and me."

  "Did the big canoe come fast?"

  "Ay. "

  "The sides were tall, the men short." Opee-Kwan stated the premises with

  conviction. "And did these men dip with long paddles?"

  Nam-Bok grinned. "There were no paddles," he said.

  Mouths remained open, and a long silence dropped down. OpeeKwan

  borrowed Koogah's pipe for a couple of contemplative sucks. One of the

  younger women giggled nervously and drew upon herself angry eyes.

  "There were no paddles?" Opee-Kwan asked softly, returning the pipe.

  "The south wind was behind," Nam-Bok explained.

  "But the wind-drift is slow."

  "The schooner had wings—thus." He sketched a diagram of masts and

  sails in the sand, and the men crowded around and studied it. The wind

  was blowing briskly, and for more graphic elucidation he seized the

  corners of his mother's shawl and spread them out till it bellied like a sail.

  Bask-Wah-Wan scolded and struggled, but was blown down the beach for

  a score of feet and left breathless and stranded in a heap of driftwood. The

  men uttered sage grunts of comprehension, but Koogah suddenly tossed

  back his hoary head.

  "Ho! Ho!" he laughed. "A foolish thing, this big canoe! A most foolish

  thing! The plaything of the wind! Wheresoever the wind goes, it goes too.

  No man who journeys therein may name the landing beach, for always he

  goes with the wind, and the wind goes everywhere, but no man knows

  where."

  "It is so," Opee-Kwan supplemented gravely. "With the wind the going is

  easy, but against the wind a man striveth hard; and for that they had no

  paddles these men on the big canoe did not strive at all."

  "Small need to strive," Nam-Bok cried angrily. "The schooner went

  likewise against the wind."

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  "And what said you made the sch—sch—schooner go?" Koogah asked,

  tripping craftily over the strange word.

  "The wind," was the impatient response.

  "Then the wind made the sch—sch—schooner go against the wind." Old

  Koogah dropped an open leer to Opee-Kwan, and, the laughter growing

  around him, continued: "The wind blows from the south and blows the

  schooner south. The wind blows against the wind. The wind blows one

  way and the other at the same time. It is very simple. We understand,

  Nam-Bok. We clearly understand."

  "Thou art a fool!"

  "Truth falls from thy lips," Koogah answered meekly. "I was overlong in

  understanding, and the thing was simple."

  But Nam-Bok's face was dark, and he said rapid words which they had

  never heard before. Bone-scratching and skin-scraping were resumed, but

  he shut his lips tightly on the tongue that could not be believed.

  "This sch—sch—schooner," Koogah imperturbably asked; `'it was made

  of a big tree ?"

  "It was made of many trees," Nam-Bok snapped shortly. "It was very big."

  He lapsed into sullen silence again, and Opee-Kwan nudged Koogah, who

  shook his head with slow amazement and murmured, "It is very strange."

  Nam-Bok took the bait. "That is nothing," he said airily; `'you should see

  the steamer. As the grain of sand is to the bidarka, as the bidarka is to the

  schooner, so the schooner is to the steamer. Further, the steamer is made

  of iron. It is all iron."

  "Nay, nay, Nam-Bok," cried the head man; "how can that be ? Always

  iron goes to the bottom. For behold, I received an iron knife in trade from

  the head man of the next village, and yesterday the iron knife slipped from

  my fingers and went down, down, into the sea. To all things there be law.

  Never was there one thing outside the law. This we know. And, moreover,

  we know that things of a kind have the one law, and that all iron has the

  one law. So unsay thy words, Nam-Bok, that we may yet honor thee."

  "It is so," Nam-Bok persisted. "The steamer is all iron and does not sink."

  "Nay, nay; this cannot be."

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  "With my own eyes I saw it."

  "It is not in the nature of things."

  "But tell me, Nam-Bok," Koogah interrupted, for fear the tale would go no

  farther, "tell me the manner of these men in finding their way across the

  sea when there is no land by which to steer."

  "The sun points out the path."

  "But how?"

  "At midday the head man of the schooner takes a thing through which his

  eye looks at the sun, and then he makes the sun climb down out of the sky

  to the edge of the earth."

  "Now this be evil medicine!" cried Opee-Kwan, aghast at the sacrilege.

  The men held up their hands in horror, and the women moaned. "This be

  evil medicine. It is not good to misdirect the great sun which drives away

  the night and gives us the seal, the salmon, and warm weather."

  "What if it be evil medicine?" Nam-Bok demanded truculently. "I, too,

  have looked through the thing at the sun and made the sun climb down out

  of the sky."

  Those who were nearest drew away from him hurriedly, and a woman

  covered the face of a child at her breast so that his eye might not fall upon

  it.

  "But on the morning of the fourth day, O Nam-Bok," Koogah suggested;

  "on the morning of the fourth day when the sch—sch— schooner came

  after thee?"

  "I had little strength left in me and could not run away. So I was taken on


  board and water was poured down my throat and good food given me.

  Twice, my brothers, you have seen a white man. These men were all white

  and as many as have I fingers and toes. And when I saw they were full of

  kindness, I took heart, and I resolved to bring away with me report of all

  that I saw. And they taught me the work they did, and gave me good food

  and a place to sleep.

  "And day after day we went over the sea, and each day the head man drew

  the sun down out of the sky and made it tell where we were. And when the

  waves were kind, we hunted the fur seal and I marvelled much, for always

  did they fling the meat and the fat away and save only the skin."

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  Opee-Kwan's mouth was twitching violently, and he was about to make

  denunciation of such waste when Koogah kicked him to be still.

  "After a weary time, when the sun was gone and the bite of the frost come

  into the air, the head man pointed the nose of the schooner south. South

  and east we travelled for days upon days, with never the land in sight, and

  we were near to the village from which hailed the men—''

  "How did they know they were near ?" Opee-Kwan, unable to contain

  himself longer, demanded. "There was no land to see."

  Nam-Bok glowered on him wrathfully. "Did I not say the head man

  brought the sun down out of the sky?"

  Koogah interposed, and Nam-Bok went on.

  "As I say, when we were near to that village a great storm blew up, and in

  the night we were helpless and knew not where we were—"

  "Thou hast just said the head man knew—"

  "Oh, peace, Opee-Kwan! Thou art a fool and cannot understand. As I say,

  we were helpless in the night, when I heard, above the roar of the storm,

  the sound of the sea on the beach. And next we struck with a mighty crash

  and I was in the water, swimming. It was a rock- bound coast, with one

  patch of beach in many miles, and the law was that I should dig my hands

  into the sand and draw myself clear of the surf. The other men must have

  pounded against the rocks, for none of them came ashore but the head

  man, and him I knew only by the ring on his finger.

  "When day came, there being nothing of the schooner, I turned my face to

  the land and journeyed into it that I might get food and look upon the faces

  of the people. And when I came to a house I was taken in and given to eat,

  for I had learned their speech, and the white men are ever kindly. And it

  was a house bigger than all the houses built by us and our fathers before

  us."

  "It was a mighty house," Koogah said, masking his unbelief with wonder.

  "And many trees went into the making of such a house," Opee- Kwan

  added, taking the cue.

  "That is nothing." Nam-Bok shrugged his shoulders in belittling fashion.

  "As our houses are to that house, so that house was to the houses I was yet

  to see."

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  "And they are not big men ?"

  "Nay; mere men like you and me," Nam-Bok answered. "I had cut a stick

  that I might walk in comfort, and remembering that I was to bring report

  to you, my brothers, I cut a notch in the stick for each person who lived in

  that house. And I stayed there many days, and worked, for which they

  gave me money—a thing of which you know nothing, but which is very

  good.

  "And one day I departed from that place to go farther into the land. And as

  I walked I met many people, and I cut smaller notches in the stick, that

  there might be room for all. Then I came upon a strange thing. On the

  ground before me was a bar of iron, as big in thickness as my arm, and a

  long step away was another bar of iron—"

  "Then wert thou a rich man," Opee-Kwan asserted; "for iron be worth

  more than anything else in the world. It would have made many knives."

  "Nay, it was not mine."

  "It was a find, and a find be lawful."

  "Not so; the white men had placed it there. And further, these bars were so

  long that no man could carry them away—so long that as far as I could see

  there was no end to them."

  "Nam-Bok, that is very much iron," Opee-Kwan cautioned.

  "Ay, it was hard to believe with my own eyes upon it; but I could not

  gainsay my eyes. And as I looked I heard . . ." He turned abruptly upon the

  head man. "Opee-Kwan, thou hast heard the sea- lion bellow in his anger.

  Make it plain in thy mind of as many sea- lions as there be waves to the

  sea, and make it plain that all these sea- lions be made into one sea-lion,

  and as that one sea-lion would bellow so bellowed the thing I heard."

  The fisherfolk cried aloud in astonishment, and Opee-Kwan's jaw lowered

  and remained lowered.

  "And in the distance I saw a monster like unto a thousand whales. It was

  one-eyed, and vomited smoke, and it snorted with exceeding loudness. I

  was afraid and ran with shaking legs along the path between the bars. But

  it came with the speed of the wind, this monster, and I leaped the iron bars

  with its breath hot on my face . . ."

  Opee-Kwan gained control of his jaw again. "And—and then, O Nam-

  Bok?"

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  34

  "Then it came by on the bars, and harmed me not; and when my legs could

  hold me up again it was gone from sight. And it is a very common thing in

  that country. Even the women and children are not afraid. Men make them

  to do work, these monsters."

  "As we make our dogs do work?" Koogah asked, with sceptic twinkle m

  his eye.

  "Ay, as we make our dogs do work."

  "And how do they breed these—these things?" Opee-Kwan questioned.

  "They breed not at all. Men fashion them cunningly of iron, and feed them

  with stone, and give them water to drink. The stone becomes fire, and the

  water becomes steam, and the steam of the water is the breath of their

  nostrils, and—"

  "There, there, O Nam-Bok," Opee-Kwan interrupted. "Tell us of other

  wonders. We grow tired of this which we may not understand."

  "You do not understand?" Nam-Bok asked despairingly.

  "Nay, we do not understand," the men and women wailed back. "We

  cannot understand."

  Nam-Bok thought of a combined harvester, and of the machines wherein

  visions of living men were to be seen, and of the machines from which

  came the voices of men, and he knew his people could never understand.

  "Dare I say I rode this iron monster through the land?" he asked bitterly.

  Opee-Kwan threw up his hands, palms outward, in open incredulity. "Say

  on; say anything. We listen."

  "Then did I ride the iron monster, for which I gave money—"

  "Thou saidst it was fed with stone."

  "And likewise, thou fool, I said money was a thing of which you know

  nothing. As I say, I rode the monster through the land, and through many

  villages, until I came to a big village on a salt arm of the sea. And the

  houses shoved their roofs among the stars in the sky, anal the clouds

  d
rifted by them, and everywhere was much smoke. And the roar of that

  village was like the roar of the sea in storm, and the people were so many

  that I flung away my stick and no longer remembered the I notches upon

  it."

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  35

  "Hadst thou made small notches," Koogah reproved, "thou mightst | have

  brought report."

  Nam-Bok whirled upon him in anger. "Had I made small notches! Listen,

  Koogah, thou scratcher of bone! If I had made small notches, neither the

  stick, nor twenty sticks, could have borne them—nay, not all the driftwood

  of all the beaches between this village and the next. And if all of you, the

  women and children as well, were twenty times as many, and if you had

  twenty hands each, and in each hand a stick and a knife, still the notches

  could not be cut for the people I saw, so many were they and so fast did

  they come and go."

  "There cannot be so many people in the world," Opee-Kwan objected, for

  he was stunned and his mind could not grasp such magnitude of numbers.

  "What cost thou know of all the world and how large it is?" NamBok

  demanded.

  "But there cannot be so many people in one place."

  "Who art thou to say what can be and what cannot be?"

  "It stands to reason there cannot be so many people in one place. Their

  canoes would clutter the sea till there was no room. And they could empty

  the sea each day of its fish, and they would not all be fed."

  "So it would seem," Nam-Bok made final answer; "yet it was so. With my

  own eyes I saw, and flung my stick away." He yawned heavily and rose to

  his feet. "I have paddled far. The day has been long, and I am tired. Now I

  will sleep, and to-morrow we will have further talk upon the things I have

  seen."

  Bask-Wah-Wan, hobbling fearfully in advance, proud indeed, yet awed by

  her wonderful son, led him to her igloo and stowed him away among the

  greasy, ill-smelling furs. But the men lingered by the fire, and a council

  was held wherein was there much whispering and lowvoiced discussion.

  An hour passed, and a second, and Nam-Bok slept, and the talk went on.

  The evening sun dipped toward the northwest, and at eleven at night was

  nearly due north. Then it was that the head man and the bonescratcher

  separated themselves from the council and aroused Nam-Bok. He blinked

  up into their faces and turned on his side to sleep again. Opee-Kwan

 

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