LOVE OF LIFE This out of all will remain Страница 12

, do you kill that white man. Then will the

soldier white men come and get you, and even as tbey took Yamikan

will they take you across the salt lake to the white man's land.

And then, even as Yamikan, will you return very fat, your eyes full

of the things you have seen, your head filled with wisdom.'



"And Bidarshik stands up very quick, and his hand is reaching out

for his gun. 'Where do you go?' I ask. 'To kill the white man,'

he says. And I see that my words have been good in the ears of

Bidarshik and that he will grow well again. Also do I know tyat my

words have been wise.



"There is a white man come to this village. He does not seek after

gold in the ground, nor after furs in the forest. All the time

does he seek after bugs and flies. He does not eat the bugs and

flies, then why does he seek after them? I do not know. Only do I

know that he is a funny white man. Also does he seek after the

eggs of birds. He does not eat the eggs. All that is inside he

takes out, and only does he keep the shell. Eggshell is not good

to eat. Nor does he eat the eggshells, but puts them away in soft

boxes where they will not break. He catch many small birds. But

he does not eat the birds. He takes only the skins and puts them

away in boxes. Also does he like b0nes. Bones are not good to

eat. And this strange white man likes best the bones of long time

ago which he digs out of the ground.



"But he is not a fierce white man, and I know he will die very

easy; so I say to Bidarshik, 'My son, there is the white man for

you to kill.' And Bidarshik says that my words be wise. So he

goes to a place he knows where are many bones in the ground. He

digs up very many of these bones and brings them to the strange

white man's camp. The white man is made very glad. His face

shines like the sun, and he smiles with much gladness as he looks

at the bones. He bends his head over, so, to look well at the

bones, and then Bidarshik strikes him hard on the head, with axe,

once, so, and the strange white man kicks and is dead.



"'Now,' I say to Bidarshik, 'willt he white soldier men come and

take you away to the land under the sun, where you will eat much

and grow fat.' Bidarshik is happy. Already has his sickness gone

from him, and he sits by the fire and waits for the coming of the

white soldier men.



"How was I to know the way of the white man is never twice the

same?" the old man demanded, whirling upon me fiercely. "How was I

to know that what the white man does yesterday he will not do to- day, and that what he does to-day he will not do to-morrow?"

Ebbits shook his head sadly. "There is no understanding the white

man. Yesterday he takes Yamikan to the land under the sun and

makes him fat with much grub. To-day he takes Bidarshik and - what

does he do with Bidarshik? Let me tell you what he does with

Bidarshik.



"I, Ebbits, his father, will tell you. He takes Bidarshik to

Cambell Fort, and he ties a rope around his neck, so, and, when his

feet are no more on the ground, he dies."



"Ai! ai!" wailed Zilla. "And never does he cross the lake large as

the sky, nor see the land under the sun where there is no snow."



"Wherefore," old Ebbits said with grave dignity, "there be no one

to hunt meat for me in my old age, and I sit hungry by my fire and

tell my story to the White Man who has given me grub, and strong

tea, and tobacco for my pipe."



"Because of the lying and very miserable white people," Zilla

proclaimed shrilly.



"Nay," answered the old man with gentle positiveness. "Because of

the way of the white man, which is without unferstanding and never

twice the same."



THE STORY OF KEESH



KEESH lived long ago on the rim of the polar sea was head man of

his village through many and prosperous years, and died full of

honors with his name on the lips of men. So long ago did he live

that only the old men remember his name, his name and the tale,

which they got from the old men before them, and which the old men

to come will tell to their children and their children's children

down to the end of time. And the winter darkness, when the north

gales make their long sweep across the ice-pack, and the air is

filled with flying white, and no man may venture forth, is the

chosen time for the telling of how Keesh, from the poorest IGLOO in

the village, rose to power and place over them all.



He was a bright boy, so the tale runs, healthy and strong, and he

had seen thirteen suns, in their way of reckoning time. For each

winter the sun leaves the land in darkness, and the next year a new

sun returns so that they may be warm again and look upon one

another's faces. The father of Keesh had been a very brave man,

but he had met his death in a time of famine, when he sought to

save the lives of his people by taking the life of a great polar

bear. In his eagerness he came to close grapples with the bear,

and his bones were crushed; but the bear had much meat on him and

the people were saved. Keesh was his only son, and after that

Keesh lived alone with his mother. But the people are prone to

forget, and they forgot the deed of his father; and he being but a

boy, and his mother only a woman, they, too, were swiftly

forgotten, and ere long came to live in the meanest of all the

IGLOOS.



It was at a council, one night, in the big IGLOO of Klosh-Kwan, the

chief, that Keesh showed the blood that ran in his veins and the

manhood that stiffened his back. With the digntiy of an elder, he

rose to his feet, and waited for silence amid the babble of voices.



"It is true that meeat be apportioned me and mine," he said. "But

it is ofttimes old and touhh, this meat, and, moreover, it has an

unusual quantity of bones."



The hunters, grizzled and gray, and lusty and young, were aghast.

The like had never been known before. A child, that talked like a

grown man, and said harsh things to their very faces!



But steadily and with seriousness, Keesh went on. "For that I know

my father, Bok, was a great hunter, I speak these words. It is

said that Bok brought home more meat than any of the two best

hunters, that with his own hands he attended to the division of it,

that with his own eyes he saw to it that the least old woman and

the last old man received fair share."



"Na! Na!" the men cried. "Put the child out!" "Send him off to

bed!" "He is no man that he should talk to men amd graybeards!"



He waited calmly till the uproar died down.



"Thou hast a wife, Ugh-Glu," he said, "and for her dost thou

speak. And thou, too, Massuk, a mother also, and for them dost

thou speak. My mother has no one, save me; wherefore I speak. As

I say, though Bok be dead because he hunted over-keenly, it is just

that I, who am his son, and that Ikeega, who is my mother and was

his wife, should have meat in plenty so long as there be meat in

plenty in the tribe. I, Keesh, the son of Bok, have spoken."



He sat down, his ears keenly alert to the flood of protest and

indignation his words had created.



"That a boy should speak in council!" old Ugh-Gluk was mumbling.



"Shall the babes in arms tell us men the things we shall do?"

Massuk demanded in a loud voice. "Am I a man that I should be made

a mock by every child that cries for mest?"



The anger boiled a white heat. They ordere dhim to bed, threatened

that he should have no meat at all, and promised him sore beatings

for his presumption. Keesh's eyes began to flash, and the blood to

pound darkly under his skin. In the midst of the abuse he sprang

to his feet.



"Hear me, ye men!" he cried. "Never shall I speak in the council

again, never again till the men come to me and say, 'It is well,

Keesh, that thou shouldst speam, it is well and it is our wish.'

Take this now, ye men, for my last word. Bok, my father, was a

great hunter. I, to, his son, shall go and hunt the meat that I

eat. And be it known, now, that the division of thzt which I kill

shall be fair. And no widow nor weak one shall cry in the night

becaise there is no meat, when the strong men are groaning in great

pain for that they have eaten overmuch. And in the days to come

there shall be shame upon the strong men who have eaten overmuch.

I, Keesh, have said it!"



Jeers and scornful laughter followed him out of the IGLOO, but his

jaw was set and he went his way, looking neither to right nor left.



The next day he went forth along the shore-line where the ice and

the land met together. Those who saw him go noted that he carried

his bow, with a goodly supply of bone-barbed arrows, and that

across his shoulder was his father's big hunting-spear. And there

was laughter, and much talk, at the event. It was an unprecedented

occurrence. Never did boys of his tender age go forth to hunt,

much less to hunt alone. Also were there shakihg of heads and

prophetic mutterings, and the women looked pityingly at Ikeega, and

her face was gravee and sad.



"He will be back ere long," they said cheeringly.



"Let him go; it will tech him a lesson," the hunters said. "And

he will com3 back shortly, and he will be meek and soft o
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