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
drifted 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
gripped him by the arm and kindly but firmly shook his senses back into
him.
“Come, Nam-Bok, arise!” he commanded. “It be time.”
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36
“Another feast?” Nam-Bok cried. “Nay, I am not hungry. Go on with the
eating and let me sleep.”
“Time to be gone!” Koogah thundered.
But Opee-Kwan spoke more softly. “Thou west bidarka-mate with me
when we were boys,” he said. “Together we first chased the seal and drew
the salmon from the traps. And thou didst drag me back to life, Nam-Bok,
when the sea closed over me and I was sucked down to the black rocks.
Together we hungered and bore the chill of the frost, and together we
crawled beneath the one fur and lay close to each other. And because of
these things, and the kindness in which I stood to thee, it grieves me sore
that thou shouldst return such a remarkable liar. We cannot understand,
and our heads be dizzy with the things thou hast spoken. It is not good,
and there has been much talk in the council. Wherefore we send thee
away, that our heads may remain clear and strong and be not troubled by
the unaccountable things.”
“These things thou speakest of be shadows,” Koogah took up the strain.
“From the shadow-world thou hast brought them, and to the shadow-world
thou must return them. Thy bidarka be ready, and the tribespeople wait.
They may not sleep until thou art gone.”
Nam-Bok was perplexed, but hearkened to the voice of the head man.
“If thou art Nam-Bok,” Opee-Kwan was saying, ‘`thou art a fearful and
most wonderful liar; if thou art the shadow of Nam-Bok, then thou
speakest of shadows, concerning which it is not good that living men have
knowledge. This great village thou hast spoken of we deem the: village of
shadows. Therein flutter the souls of the dead; for the dead be many and
the living few. The dead do not come back. Never have the dead come
back—save thou with thy wonder-tales. It is not meet that the dead come
back, and should we permit it, great trouble may be our portion.”
Nam-Bok knew his people well and was aware that the voice of the
council was supreme. So he allowed himself to be led down to the water’s
edge, where he was put aboard his bidarka and a paddle thrust into his
hand. A stray wild-fowl honked somewhere to seaward, and the surf broke
limply and hollowly on the sand. A dim twilight brooded over land and
water, and in the north the sun smouldered, vague and troubled, and
draped about with blood-red mists. The gulls were flying low. The offshore
wind blew keen and chill, and the black-massed clouds behind it
gave promise of bitter weather.
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37
“Out of the sea thou camest,” Opee-Kwan chanted oracularly, “and back
into the sea thou goest. Thus is balance achieved and all things brought to
law.”
Bask-Wah-Wan limped to the froth-mark and cried, “I bless thee, Nam-
Bok, for that thou remembered me.”
But Koogah, shoving Nam-Bok clear of the beach, tore the shawl from her
shoulders and flung it into the bidarka.
“It is cold in the long nights,” she wailed; “and the frost is prone to nip old
bones.”
“The thing is a shadow,” the bone-scratcher answered, ”and shadows
cannot keep thee warm.”
Nam-Bok stood up that his voice might carry. HO Bask-Wah-Wan,
mother that bore me!” he called. “Listen to the words of Nam-Bok, thy
son. There be room in his bidarka for two, and he would that thou camest