edge of the sharpest knife, and a three-hundred-pound bear, frozen
stiff, is no easy thing to put upon a sled and haul over the rough
ice. But arrived at the spot, they found not only the kill, which
they had doubted, but that Keesh had quartered the beasts in true
hunter fashion, and removed the entrails.
Thus began the mystery of Keesh, a mystery that deepened and
deepened with the passing of the days. His very next trip he
killed a young bear, nearly full-grown, and on the trip following,
a large male bear and his mate. He was ordinarily gone from three
to four days, though it was nothing unusual for him to stay away a
week at a time on the ice-field. Always he declined company on
these expeditions, and the people marvelled. “How does he do it?”
they demanded of one another. “Never does he take a dog with him,
and dogs are of such great help, too.”
“Why dost thou hunt only bear?” Klosh-Kwan once ventured to ask
him.
And Keesh made fitting answer. “It is well known that there is
more meat on the bear,” he said.
But there was also talk of witchcraft in the village. “He hunts
with evil spirits,” some of the people contended, “wherefore his
hunting is rewarded. How else can it be, save that he hunts with
evil spirits?”
“Mayhap they be not evil, but good, these spirits,” others said.
“It is known that his father was a mighty hunter. May not his
father hunt with him so that he may attain excellence and patience
and understanding? Who knows?”
None the less, his success continued, and the less skilful hunters
were often kept busy hauling in his meat. And in the division of
it he was just. As his father had done before him, he saw to it
that the least old woman and the last old man received a fair
LOVE OF LIFE AND OTHER STORIES
43
portion, keeping no more for himself than his needs required. And
because of this, and of his merit as a hunter, he was looked upon
with respect, and even awe; and there was talk of making him chief
after old Klosh-Kwan. Because of the things he had done, they
looked for him to appear again in the council, but he never came,
and they were ashamed to ask.
”
I am minded to build me an IGLOO,” he said one day to Klosh-Kwan
and a number of the hunters. “It shall be a large IGLOO, wherein
Ikeega and I can dwell in comfort.”
“Ay,” they nodded gravely.
“But I have no time. My business is hunting, and it takes all my
time. So it is but just that the men and women of the village who
eat my meat should build me my IGLOO.”
And the IGLOO was built accordingly, on a generous scale which
exceeded even the dwelling of Klosh-Kwan. Keesh and his mother
moved into it, and it was the first prosperity she had enjoyed
since the death of Bok. Nor was material prosperity alone hers,
for, because of her wonderful son and the position he had given
her, she came to he looked upon as the first woman in all the
village; and the women were given to visiting her, to asking her
advice, and to quoting her wisdom when arguments arose among
themselves or with the men.
But it was the mystery of Keesh’s marvellous hunting that took
chief place in all their minds. And one day Ugh-Gluk taxed him
with witchcraft to his face.
“It is charged,” Ugh-Gluk said ominously, “that thou dealest with
evil spirits, wherefore thy hunting is rewarded.”
“Is not the meat good?” Keesh made answer. “Has one in the village
yet to fall sick from the eating of it? How dost thou know that
witchcraft be concerned? Or dost thou guess, in the dark, merely
because of the envy that consumes thee?”
And Ugh-Gluk withdrew discomfited, the women laughing at him as he
walked away. But in the council one night, after long
deliberation, it was determined to put spies on his track when he
went forth to hunt, so that his methods might be learned. So, on
his next trip, Bim and Bawn, two young men, and of hunters the
craftiest, followed after him, taking care not to be seen. After
five days they returned, their eyes bulging and their tongues a-
tremble to tell what they had seen. The council was hastily called
in Klosh-Kwan’s dwelling, and Bim took up the tale.
“Brothers! As commanded, we journeyed on the trail of Keesh, and
cunningly we journeyed, so that he might not know. And midway of
the first day he picked up with a great he-bear. It was a very
great bear.”
“None greater,” Bawn corroborated, and went on himself. “Yet was
the bear not inclined to fight, for he turned away and made off
slowly over the ice. This we saw from the rocks of the shore, and
LOVE OF LIFE AND OTHER STORIES
44
the bear came toward us, and after him came Keesh, very much
unafraid. And he shouted harsh words after the bear, and waved his
arms about, and made much noise. Then did the bear grow angry, and
rise up on his hind legs, and growl. But Keesh walked right up to
the bear.”
“Ay,” Bim continued the story. “Right up to the bear Keesh walked.
And the bear took after him, and Keesh ran away. But as he ran he
dropped a little round ball on the ice. And the bear stopped and
smelled of it, then swallowed it up. And Keesh continued to run
away and drop little round balls, and the bear continued to swallow
them up.”
Exclamations and cries of doubt were being made, and Ugh-Gluk
expressed open unbelief.
“With our own eyes we saw it,” Bim affirmed.
And Bawn – “Ay, with our own eyes. And this continued until the
bear stood suddenly upright and cried aloud in pain, and thrashed
his fore paws madly about. And Keesh continued to make off over
the ice to a safe distance. But the bear gave him no notice, being
occupied with the misfortune the little round balls had wrought
within him.”
“Ay, within him,” Bim interrupted. “For he did claw at himself,
and leap about over the ice like a playful puppy, save from the way
he growled and squealed it was plain it was not play but pain.
Never did I see such a sight!”
“Nay, never was such a sight seen,” Bawn took up the strain. “And
furthermore, it was such a large bear.”
“Witchcraft,” Ugh-Gluk suggested.
“I know not,” Bawn replied. “I tell only of what my eyes beheld.
And after a while the bear grew weak and tired, for he was very
heavy and he had jumped about with exceeding violence, and he went
off along the shore-ice, shaking his head slowly from side to side
and sitting down ever and again to squeal and cry. And Keesh
followed after the bear, and we followed after Keesh, and for that
day and three days more we followed. The bear grew weak, and never
ceased crying from his pain.”
“It was a charm!” Ugh-Gluk exclaimed. “Surely it was a charm!”
“It may well be.”
And Bim relieved Bawn. “The bear wandered, now this way and now
that, doubling back and forth and crossing his trail in circles, so
that at the end he was near where Keesh had first come upon him.
By this time he was quite sick, the bear, and could crawl no
farther, so Keesh came up close and speared him to death.”
“And then?” Klosh-Kwan demanded.
“Then we left Keesh skinning the bear, and came running that the
LOVE OF LIFE AND OTHER STORIES
45
news of the killing might be told.”
And in the afternoon of that day the women hauled in the meat of
the bear while the men sat in council assembled. When Keesh
arrived a messenger was sent to him, bidding him come to the
council. But he sent reply, saying that he was hungry and tired;
also that his IGLOO was large and comfortable and could hold many
men.
And curiosity was so strong on the men that the whole council,
Klosh-Kwan to the fore, rose up and went to the IGLOO of Keesh. He
was eating, but he received them with respect and seated them
according to their rank. Ikeega was proud and embarrassed by
turns, but Keesh was quite composed.
Klosh-Kwan recited the information brought by Bim and Bawn, and at
its close said in a stern voice: “So explanation is wanted, O
Keesh, of thy manner of hunting. Is there witchcraft in it?”
Keesh looked up and smiled. “Nay, O Klosh-Kwan. It is not for a
boy to know aught of witches, and of witches I know nothing. I
have but devised a means whereby I may kill the ice-bear with ease,