light of the summer borealis.
"It be strange," he said; "cold like water and hot like fire. To the drinker it
giveth strength, and from the drinker it taketh away strength. It maketh old
men young, and young men old. To the man who is weary it leadeth him
to get up and go onward, and to the man unweary it burdeneth him into
sleep. My brother was possessed of the heart of a rabbit, yet did he drink
of it, and forthwith slay four of his enemies. My father was like a great
wolf, showing his teeth to all men, yet did he drink of it and was shot
through the back, running swiftly away. It be most strange."
"It is 'Three Star,' and a better than what they poison their lies with down
there," I answered, sweeping my hand, as it were, over the yawning chasm
of blackness and down to where the beach fires glinted far below—tiny
jets of flame which gave proportion and reality to the night.
Palitlum sighed and shook his head. "Wherefore I am here with thee."
And here he embraced the bottle and me in a look which told more
eloquently than speech of his shameless thirst.
"Nay," I said, snuggling the bottle in between my knees. "Speak now of
Ligoun. Of the 'Three Star' we will hold speech hereafter."
"There be plenty, and I am not wearied," he pleaded brazenly. "But the
feel of it on my lips, and I will speak great words of Ligoun and his last
days."
"From the drinker it taketh away strength," I mocked, ''and to the man
unweary it burdeneth him into sleep."
"Thou art wise," he rejoined, without anger and pridelessly. "Like all of
thy brothers, thou art wise. Waking or sleeping, the 'Three Star' be with
thee, yet never have I known thee to drink overlong or overmuch. And the
while you gather to you the gold that hides in our mountains and the fish
that swim in our seas; and Palitlum, and the brothers of Palitlum, dig the
gold for thee and net the fish, and are glad to be made glad when out of
thy wisdom thou deemest it fit that the 'Three Star' should wet our lips."
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"I was minded to hear of Ligoun," I said impatiently. "The night grows
short, and we have a sore journey to-morrow."
I yawned and made as though to rise, but Palitlum betrayed a quick
anxiety, and with abruptness began:—
"It was Ligoun's desire, in his old age, that peace should be among the
tribes. As a young man he had been first of the fighting men and chief
over the war-chiefs of the Islands and the Passes. All his days had been
full of fighting. More marks he boasted of bone and lead and iron than any
other man. Three wives he had, and for each wife two sons; and the sons,
eldest born and last and all, died by his side in battle. Restless as the baldface,
he ranged wide and far—north to Unalaska and the Shallow Sea;
south to the Queen Charlottes, ay, even did he go with the Kakes, it is told,
to far Puget Sound, and slay thy brothers in their sheltered houses.
"But, as I say, in his old age he looked for peace among the tribes. Not that
he was become afraid, or overfond of the corner by the fire and the wellfilled
pot. For he slew with the shrewdness and blood-hunger of the
fiercest, drew in his belly to famine with the youngest, and with the
stoutest faced the bitter seas and stinging trail. But because of his many
deeds, and in punishment, a warship carried him away, even to thy
country, O Hair-Face and Boston Man; and the years were many ere he
came back, and I was grown to something more than a boy and something
less than a young man. And Ligoun, being childless in his old age, made
much of me, and grown wise, gave me of his wisdom.
"'It be good to fight, O Palitlum,' said he. Nay, O Hair-Face, for I was
unknown as Palitlum in those days, being called Olo, the Ever- Hungry.
The drink was to come after. 'It be good to fight,' spake Ligoun, 'but it be
foolish. In the Boston Man Country, as I saw with mine eyes, they are not
given to fighting one with another, and they be strong. Wherefore, of their
strength, they come against us of the Islands and Passes, and we are as
camp smoke and sea mist before them. Wherefore I say it be good to fight,
most good, but it be likewise foolish.'
"And because of this, though first always of the fighting men, Ligoun's
voice was loudest, ever, for peace. And when he was very old, being
greatest of chiefs and richest of men, he gave a potlatch. Never was there
such a potlatch. Five hundred canoes were lined against the river bank,
and in each canoe there came not less than ten of men and women. Eight
tribes were there; from the first and oldest man to the last and youngest
babe were they there. And then there were men from far-distant tribes,
great travellers and seekers who had heard of the potlatch of Ligoun. And
for the length of seven days they filled their bellies with his meat and
drink. Eight thousand blankets did he give to them, as I well know, for
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who but I kept the tally and apportioned according to degree and rank?
And in the end Ligoun was a poor man; but his name was on all men's
lips, and other chiefs gritted their teeth in envy that he should be so great.
"And so, because there was weight to his words, he counselled peace; and
he journeyed to every potlatch and feast and tribal gathering that he might
counsel peace. And so it came that we journeyed together, Ligoun and I, to
the great feast given by Niblack, who was chief over the river Indians of
the Skoot, which is not far from the Stickeen. This was in the last days,
and Ligoun was very old and very close to death. He coughed of cold
weather and camp smoke, and often the red blood ran from out his mouth
till we looked for him to die.
"'Nay,' he said once at such time; 'it were better that I should die when the
blood leaps to the knife, and there is a clash of steel and smell of powder,
and men crying aloud what of the cold iron and quick lead.' So, it be plain,
O Hair-Face, that his heart was yet strong for battle.
"It is very far from the Chilcat to the Skoot, and we were many days in the
canoes. And the while the men bent to the paddles, I sat at the feet of
Ligoun and received the Law. Of small need for me to say the Law, O
Hair-Face, for it be known to me that in this thou art well skilled. Yet do I
speak of the Law of blood for blood, and rank for rank. Also did Ligoun
go deeper into the matter, saying:—
"'But know this, O Olo, that there be little honor in the killing of a man
less than thee. Kill always the man who is greater, and thy honor shall be
according to his greatness. But if, of two men, thou killest the lesser, then
is shame shine, for which the very squaws will lift their lips at thee. As I
say, peace be good; but remember, O Olo, if kill thou must, that thou
killest by the Law.'
"It is a way of the Thlinket-folk," Palitlum vouchsafed half apologetically.
And I remembered the gun-fighters and bad men of my own Western land,
and wa
s not perplexed at the way of the Thlinket-folk.
"In time," Palitlum continued, "we came to Chief Niblack and the Skoots.
It was a feast great almost as the potlatch of Ligoun. There were we of the
Chilcat, and the Sitkas, and the Stickeens who are neighbors to the Skoots,
and the Wrangels and the Hoonahs. There were Sundowns and Tahkos
from Port Houghton, and their neighbors the Awks from Douglass
Channel; the Naass River people, and the Tongas from north of Dixon,
and the Kakes who come from the island called Kupreanoff. Then there
were Siwashes from Vancouver, Cassiars from the Gold Mountains,
Teslin men, and even Sticks from the Yukon Country.
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"It was a mighty gathering. But first of all, there was to be a meeting of
the chiefs with Niblack, and a drowning of all enmities in quass. The
Russians it was who showed us the way of making quass, for so my father
told me,—my father, who got it from his father before him. But to this
quass had Niblack added many things, such as sugar, flour, dried apples,
and hops, so that it was a man's drink, strong and good. Not so good as
'Three Star,' O Hair-Face, yet good.
"This quass-feast was for the chiefs, and the chiefs only, and there was a
score of them. But Ligoun being very old and very great, it was given that
I walk with him that he might lean upon my shoulder and that I might ease
him down when he took his seat and raise him up when he arose. At the
door of Niblack's house, which was of logs and very big, each chief, as
was the custom, laid down his spear or rifle and his knife. For as thou
knowest, O Hair-Face, strong drink quickens, and old hates flame up, and
head and hand are swift to act. But I noted that Ligoun had brought two
knives, the one he left outside the door, the other slipped under his
blanket, snug to the grip. The other chiefs did likewise, and I was troubled
for what was to come.
"The chiefs were ranged, sitting, in a big circle about the room. I stood at
Ligoun's elbow. In the middle was the barrel of quass and by it a slave to
serve the drink. First, Niblack made oration, with much show of friendship
and many fine words. Then he gave a sign, and the slave dipped a gourd
full of quass and passed it to Ligoun, as was fit, for his was the highest
rank.
"Ligoun drank it, to the last drop, and I gave him my strength to get on his
feet so that he, too, might make oration. He had kind speech for the many
tribes, noted the greatness of Niblack to give such a feast, counselled for
peace as was his custom, and at the end said that the quass was very good.
"Then Niblack drank, being next of rank to Ligoun, and after him one
chief and another in degree and order. And each spoke friendly words and
said that the quass was good, till all had drunk. Did I say all ? Nay, not all,
O Hair-Face. For last of them was one, a lean and cat-like man, young of
face, with a quick and daring eye, who drank darkly, and spat forth upon
the ground, and spoke no word.
"To not say that the quass was good were insult; to spit forth upon the
ground were worse than insult. And this very thing did he do. He was
known for a chief over the Sticks of the Yukon, and further naught was
known of him.
"As I say, it was an insult. But mark this, O Hair-Face: it was an insuit, not
to Niblack the feast-giver, but to the man chiefest of rank who sat among
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those of the circle. And that man was Ligoun. There was no sound. All
eyes were upon him to see what he might do. He made no movement. His
withered lips trembled not into speech; nor did a nostril quiver, nor an
eyelid droop. But I saw that he looked wan and gray, as I have seen old
men look of bitter mornings when famine pressed, and the women wailed
and the children whimpered, and there was no meat nor sign of meat. And
as the old men looked, so looked Ligoun.
"There was no sound. It were as a circle of the dead, but that each chief
felt beneath his blanket to make sure, and that each chief glanced to his
neighbor, right and left, with a measuring eye. I was a stripling the things I
had seen were few; yet I knew it to be the moment one meets but once in
all a lifetime.
"The Stick rose up, with every eye upon him, and crossed the room till he
stood before Ligoun.
"'I am Opitsah, the Knife,' he said.
"But Ligoun said naught, nor looked at him, but gazed unblinking at the
ground.
"'You are Ligoun,' Opitsah said. 'You have killed many men. I am still
alive.'
"And still Ligoun said naught, though he made the sign to me and with my
strength arose and stood upright on his two feet. He was as an old pine,
naked and gray, but still a-shoulder to the frost and storm. His eyes were
unblinking, and as he had not heard Opitsah, so it seemed he did not see
him.
"And Opitsah was mad with anger, and danced stiff-legged before him, as
men do when they wish to give another shame. And Opitsah sang a song
of his own greatness and the greatness of his people, filled with bad words
for the Chilcats and for Ligoun. And as he danced and sang, Opitsah threw
off his blanket and with his knife drew bright circles before the face of
Ligoun. And the song he sang was the Song of the Knife.
"And there was no other sound, only the singing of Opitsah, and the circle
of chiefs that were as dead, save that the flash of the knife seemed to draw
smouldering fire from their eyes. And Ligoun, also, was very still. Yet did
he know his death, and was unafraid. And the knife sang closer and yet
closer to his face, but his eyes were unblinking and he swayed not to right
or left, or this way or that.
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"And Opitsah drove in the knife, so, twice on the forehead of Ligoun, and
the red blood leaped after it. And then it was that Ligoun gave me the sign
to bear up under him with my youth that he might walk. And he laughed
with a great scorn, full in the face of Opitsah, the Knife. And he brushed
Opitsah to the side, as one brushes to the side a low-hanging branch on the
trail and passes on.
"And I knew and understood, for there was but shame in the killing of
Opitsah before the faces of a score of greater chiefs. I remembered the
Law, and knew Ligoun had it in mind to kill by the Law. And who,
chiefest of rank but himself, was there but Niblack? And toward Niblack,
leaning on my arm, he walked. And to his other arm, clinging and striking,
was Opitsah, too small to soil with his blood the hands of so great a man.
And though the knife of Opitsah bit in again and again, Ligoun noted it
not, nor winced. And in this fashion we three went our way across the
room, Niblack sitting in his blanket and fearful of our coming.
"And now old hates flamed up and forgotten grudges were remembered.
Lamuk, a Kake, had had a brother drowned in the bad water of th
e
Stickeen, and the Stickeens had not paid in blankets for their bad water, as
was the custom to pay. So Lamuk drove straight with his long knife to the
heart of Klok-Kutz the Stickeen. And Katchahook remembered a quarrel
of the Naass River people with the Tongas of north of Dixon, and the chief
of the Tongas he slew with a pistol which made much noise. And the
blood-hunger gripped all the men who sat in the circle, and chief slew
chief, or was slain, as chance might be. Also did they stab and shoot at
Ligoun, for whoso killed him won great honor and would be unforgotten
for the deed. And they were about him like wolves about a moose, only
they were so many they were in their own way, and they slew one another
to make room. And there was great confusion.
"But Ligoun went slowly, without haste, as though many years were yet
before him. It seemed that he was certain he would make his kill, in his
own way, ere they could slay him. And as I say, he went slowly, and
knives bit into him, and he was red with blood. And though none sought
after me, who was a mere stripling, yet did the knives find me, and the hot
bullets burn me. And still Ligoun leaned his weight on my youth, and
Opitsah struck at him, and we three went forward. And when we stood by
Niblack, he was afraid, and covered his head with his blanket. The Skoots
were ever cowards.
"And Goolzug and Kadishan, the one a fish-eater and the other a meatkiller,
closed together for the honor of their tribes. And they raged madly
about, and in their battling swung against the knees of Opitsah, who was
overthrown and trampled upon. And a knife, singing through the air,
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smote Skulpin, of the Sitkas, in the throat, and he flung his arms out
blindly, reeling, and dragged me down in his fall.
"And from the ground I beheld Ligoun bend over Niblack, and uncover
the blanket from his head, and turn up his face to the light. And Ligoun
was in no haste. Being blinded with his own blood, he swept it out of his
eyes with the back of his hand, so he might see and be sure. And when he
was sure that the upturned face was the face of Niblack, he drew the knife
across his throat as one draws a knife across the throat of a trembling deer.
And then Ligoun stood erect, singing his deathsong and swaying gently to
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