Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 10, 2025
During the tragic days of his isolation the full realization of all that he had lost had come to Ootah. He fed upon the memory of Annadoah's face. He remembered how, with the vision of that face before him, he had excelled in the hunts and games, and for many moons had felt confident of winning her.
Out of the crimson-shot vapors mystical forms took shape. Annadoah saw the beautiful face of Nerrvik, and in the mists saw her watery green and wondrous tresses of uncombed hair. She saw the nebulous shadow of the dreaded Kokoyah, the pitiless god of the waters, to whose cold, compassionless bosom had been gathered Ootah and Little Blind Spring Bunting.
And Ootah noted with anxiety the increasing moderation of the atmosphere. That was not well. When the cold relented the hill spirits released the glaciers. With frantic eagerness they explored the valley. The green grass whereon Ootah had seen the splendid animals grazing months before was covered with ice. There was no sign of the ahmingmah. Ootah's heart sank. He felt very much like weeping.
Her inexplicable moods, her brief moments of tenderness, her riotous griefs, and other prefigurements of maternity these made her dearer to Ootah. So he vigorously cracked his whip and urged the dogs. The chasms twisted with lifelike motion all around him. Behind, as in a dream, Ootah heard the whip of Koolotah, and the barking of Koolotah's dogs.
"Methinks thou wilt perhaps join the fishes first, friend Maisanguaq," a familiar voice laughed joyously behind him. Maisanguaq's face became livid with dismay. Had the angakoq failed? And why? Turning, he saw Ootah, not far away, clambering from the water onto the floe. He was unscathed by the mishap the water even had not penetrated his skin garments.
Ootah felt a flush of fierce indignation rise within him. His food for the winter, whereby he hoped to win Annadoah, that which might keep away the wolves of starvation, was being wantonly wasted. He saw his companions cowering at the sight of the white man he drew himself erect. He saw the Newfoundlander turn and shout to his companions on the shore.
When Annadoah opened her eyes Ootah was bending over her. "I was held in the mountains, Annadoah. The hill spirits were at war. The snow came, the storm spirits loosed the ice. I fell into an abyss . . . I lay asleep . . . for very long. It seemed like many moons. I could barely walk when I awoke. I had no food.
Of all the unmarried maidens of the tribes, none cooked so well, none could sew so well as Annadoah, none was so skilled in the art of making ahttees and kamiks as Annadoah. And, moreover, Annadoah was very fair. "Ootah! aveq soah! Hasten thou! The walrus are drifting to sea." Attalaq rushed up to the village and paused at the tent of Annadoah. "Ootah!" he called. A voice from within replied.
They paced off twenty miles. They reached an altitude of more than a thousand feet above the sea. The great moon slowly circled about the sky; the scurrying clouds contorted like grotesque living things. The two hunters made precipitous descents over unexpected frozen slopes at times it seemed as though they were about to be hurled to instantaneous death. Yet Ootah steeled his heart.
Ootah sang for joy. Again he had achieved distinction on the hunt, and so, with all the better chances of success, he believed he might pursue his suit for the hand of Annadoah. With powerful, steady strokes of their paddles the hunters, in their processions of kayaks, towed the walrus through the sea shoreward. They joined unrestrainedly in Ootah's hunting chant. Only Maisanguaq was silent.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking