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Updated: June 7, 2025
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." "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 wast bidarka-mate with me when we were boys," he said.
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.
"Hold, O Nam-Bok!" Opee-Kwan broke in. "What manner of men were they? big men?" "Nay, mere men like you and me." "Did the big canoe come fast?" "Ay." "The sides were tall, the men short." Opee-Kwan stated the premises with conviction. "And did these men dip with long paddles?" Nam-Bok grinned. "There were no paddles," he said. Mouths remained open, and a long silence dropped down.
This embarrassed him not because he was modest of spirit, however, but for the fact that the stench of the seal-oil had robbed him of his appetite, and that he keenly desired to conceal his feelings on the subject. "Eat; thou art hungry," Opee-Kwan commanded, and Nam-Bok shut both his eyes and shoved his fist into the big pot of putrid fish. "La la, be not ashamed.
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?"
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.
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.
"Hold, O Nam-Bok!" Opee-Kwan broke in. "What manner of men were they? big men?" "Nay, mere men like you and me." "Did the big canoe come fast?" "Ay." "The sides were tall, the men short." Opee-Kwan stated the premises with conviction. "And did these men dip with long paddles?" Nam-Bok grinned. "There were no paddles," he said. Mouths remained open, and a long silence dropped down.
"If each bidarka were as a grain of sand," Nam-Bok defiantly continued, "and if there were as many bidarkas as there be grains of sand in this beach, still would they not make so big a canoe as this I saw on the morning of the fourth day. It was a very big canoe, and it was called a schooner. I saw this thing of wonder, this great schooner, coming after me, and on it I saw men "
"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." "And what said you made the sch sch schooner go?"
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