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.”
CHILDREN OF THE FROST
30
“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.”
CHILDREN OF THE FROST
31
“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.”
CHILDREN OF THE FROST
32
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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33
“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