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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."
One night, after Yamikan has gone home, Bidarshik stands up, so, very tall, and he strikes his chest with his fist, and says, 'When I am a man, I shall journey in far places, even to the land where there is no snow, and see things for myself." "Always did Bidarshik journey in far places," Zilla interrupted proudly. "It be true," Ebbits assented gravely.
"Where be thy strong son, Moklan, and the fish he was ever willing to bring that you might eat?" The old man shook his head. "And where be Bidarshik, thy strong son? Ever was he a mighty hunter, and ever did he bring thee the good back-fat and the sweet dried tongues of the moose and the caribou. I see no back-fat and no sweet dried tongues.
"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?
"So, one night when he sits by the fire, very sick, his head hanging down, I say, 'My son, I have learned the way for you to go to the white man's land. He looks at me, and his face is glad. 'Go, I say, 'even as Yamikan went. But Bidarshik is sick and does not understand. 'Go forth, I say, 'and find a white man, and, even as Yamikan, do you kill that white man.
I have no more sons and I do not want Bidarshik to die. It is a head-sickness, and there is but one way to make it well. Bidarshik must journey across the lake as large as the sky to the land where there is no snow, else will he die. I make a very great think, and then I see the way for Bidarshik to go.
"But before he dies, many times does he sit by my fire and make talk of the strange things he has seen. And Bidarshik, who is my son, sits by the fire and listens; and his eyes are very wide and large because of the things he hears.
"'Now, I say to Bidarshik, 'will the 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.
"He would shake his head and say, 'Only do I care to eat the grub of the white man and grow fat after the manner of Yamikan." "And he did not eat the meat," Ebbits went on. "And the sickness of Bidarshik grew into a great sickness until I thought he would die. It was not a sickness of the body, but of the head. It was a sickness of desire. I, Ebbits, who am his father, make a great think.
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.