United States or Palestine ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
There he was found by old Makitok, and for some time the giant and the wizard held converse together. "I love these Kablunets," said Chingatok. "They are a strange race," returned the wizard. "They mingle much folly with their wisdom. They come here to find this Nort Pole, this nothing, and they find it. Then they go away and leave it! What good has it done them?"
Anyhow he founded a colony in Great Isle, and Makitok is the present head of all the families." Leo then explained about the mystery-thing called buk, which was wrapped up in innumerable pieces of sealskin. "Strange," said the Captain, "passing strange. All you tell me makes me the more anxious to visit this man of the valley.
It is only the eldest boy of a family, in this tribe, who bears his father's surname. My eldest alone goes by the name of Mackintosh. His eldest will bear the same name, and so on. But these Eskimos make a sad mess of it. I doubt if my Scotch kinsmen would recognise us under the name of Makitok which is the nearest "
An expedition was planned to Great Isle, not now for the purpose of consulting Makitok, the oracle, as to the best time for going to war, but to gratify the wishes of Captain Vane, who had the strongest reason for believing that he was in the immediate neighbourhood of the Pole. "Blackbeard says he must be very near nothing now," observed Chingatok to Anders the day after their arrival.
"Behold Makitok!" said Teyma as they drew near. The old man did not move. He appeared to be over eighty years of age, and, unlike Eskimos in general, had a bushy snow-white beard. The thin hair on his head was also white, and his features were good.
"Behold a more powerful reminder of the flight of Time!" said Benjy, pointing to the aged Makitok, who, with white beard and snow-besprinkled person, came slowly towards them like the living embodiment of "Old Father Christmas." "Come," said Leo, hastening to assist the old man, "let me help you up the Pole."
"Then," continued Chingatok, "I would advise that there should be three chiefs, who shall be equal my father, Grabantak, and Makitok. Let these consult about our affairs. Let the people appoint twelve men to hold council with them, and what the most of them agree to shall be done." After some further talk this compromise was agreed to.
I wish they would come here the whole nation of them and learn how to live in peace and be happy among the Eskimos. But they will not come. Only a few of their best men venture to come, and I should not wonder if their countrymen refused to believe the half of what they tell them when they get home." Old Makitok made no reply.
At the centre and lowest part of the valley, Makitok, or rather Makitok's forefathers, had built their dwelling. It was a hut, resembling the huts of the Eskimos. No other hut was to be seen. The angekok loved solitude. Beside the hut there stood a small truncated cone about fifteen feet high, on the summit of which sat an old white-bearded man, who intently watched the approaching travellers.
"But the laws of Poloeland and those of Flatland are different," said Amalatok, starting another objection. "We must have the same laws." "My brother chief is wise," said Grabantak. "Let us have new laws, and let that wise young Kablunet, Alf, make them." "Both my brother chiefs are wise," said Makitok. "Let it be done, and let him take the laws out of the little thing that speaks to him."
Word Of The Day