United States or United Kingdom ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
My mother dead tells the tale of his wrong; a Russian, dead with a spear through breast and back, tells the tale of the vengeance of Kinoos. "But wherever we fled, and however far we fled, always did we find the hated Russian folk.
She arose with catlike ease and suddenness to her full height, her eyes flashing, her nostrils quivering like a deer's. "I was thy woman to be, Negore, but thou art a coward; the daughter of Old Kinoos mates not with a coward!" She silenced him with an imperious gesture as he strove to speak. "Old Kinoos and I came among you from a strange land.
"It is not a good name," Old Kinoos chuckled. "Thou dost not understand, Kinoos," Negore said gently. "But I shall make thee understand. Know that I was away on the hunt of the bear, with Kamo-tah, my mother's son. And Kamo-tah fought with a great bear. We had no meat for three days, and Kamo-tah was not strong of arm nor swift of foot.
But first the Russians put out the eyes of Old Kinoos that he might never show the way again, and then they fought, where the waves beat white, with the people of Pastolik. "Now the head-man of these Russians was Ivan. He it was, with his two thumbs, who drove out the eyes of Kinoos.
He it was who fought his way through the white water, with two men left of all his men, and went away along the rim of the Great Fog Sea into the north. Kinoos was wise. He could see no more and was helpless as a child. So he fled away from the sea, up the great, strange Yukon, even to Nulato, and I fled with him. "This was the deed my father did, Kinoos, an old man.
"Art thou willing to do no less than what Old Kinoos hath done?" He nodded his head, and waited. "As thou hast said, they seek for us even now, these Russians. Show them the way, Negore, even as Old Kinoos showed them the way, so that they come, unprepared, to where we wait for them, in a passage up the rocks. Thou knowest the place, where the wall is broken and high.
But Ivan, who had once been shown the way by Old Kinoos, and had found that way to lead through the white water and a deadly fight, believed no more in anything. So when they came to a passage up the rocks, he halted his forty men, and through Karduk demanded if the way were clear. Negore looked at it shortly and carelessly.
And sometimes the men they took to show them the way never came back, till the people became angry and planned a great plan. "So, when there came a ship, Old Kinoos stepped forward and said he would show the way. He was an old man then, and his hair was white; but he was unafraid.
"Even so," he answered. "Negore will show them the way. And then?" "And then I shall be thy woman, Negore's woman, the brave man's woman. And thou shalt hunt meat for me and Old Kinoos, and I shall cook thy food, and sew thee warm parkas and strong, and make thee moccasins after the way of my people, which is a better way than thy people's way.
The sun danced above him in the sky, the huge walls reeled and swung, and still he heard and saw dimly. And when the great Ivan fell across his legs, hurled there lifeless and crushed by a down-rushing rock, he remembered the blind eyes of Old Kinoos and was glad.
Word Of The Day