United States or Antigua and Barbuda ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
For there have been many Sunlanders among the Bear People, few among the Hungry Folk, and none at all among the Mandells, save the Whale People and those who sleep now in the igloo of Neegah." "Their sugar is very good," Neegah commented, "and their flour." "They have great wealth," Ounenk added.
"And Pome-Lee?" cried one of the two Hungry Folk; "Pome-Lee, the son of my mother?" "Pome-Lee is not," Ounenk answered in a monotonous voice. "And the Sunlanders?" from Aab-Waak. "The Sunlanders are not." "Then the ship of the Sunlanders, and the wealth and guns and things?" Tyee demanded. "Neither the ship of the Sunlanders, nor the wealth and guns and things," was the unvarying response.
Likeeta fetched him water, and he grunted and drank again. "Was it a fight?" Tyee demanded finally, "a good fight?" "Ho! ho! ho!" So suddenly and so fiercely did Ounenk laugh that every voice hushed. "Never was there such a fight! So I say, I, Ounenk, fighter beforetime of beasts and men. And ere I forget, let me speak fat words and wise.
And one got a big gun, from which at one time he shot many small bullets. And so, behold!" Ounenk pointed to his ear, neatly pierced by a buckshot. "But I, Ounenk, drove my spear through his back from behind. And in such fashion, one way and another, did we kill them all all save the head man.
"All are not. Nothing is. I only am." "And thou art a fool." "It may be so," Ounenk answered, unruffled. "I have seen that which would well make me a fool." Tyee held his tongue, and all waited till it should please Ounenk to tell the story in his own way. "We took no guns, O Tyee," he at last began; "no guns, my brothers only knives and hunting bows and spears.
And like a bird I rose up in the air, and the living Mandell Folk, and the dead Sunlanders, the little kayaks, the big ship, the guns, the wealth everything rose up in the air. So I say, I, Ounenk, who tell the tale, am the only one left." A great silence fell upon the assemblage. Tyee looked at Aab-Waak with awe-struck eyes, but forbore to speak. Even the women were too stunned to wail the dead.
Avoiding the loopholes, which were making on every side of the igloo, they emptied the skins on the dry drift-logs brought down by the Mandell River from the tree-lands to the south. Ounenk ran forward with a blazing brand, and the flames leaped upward. Many minutes passed, without sign, and they held their weapons ready as the fire gained headway.
Ounenk looked about him with pride. "I, only, am left," he repeated. But at that instant a rifle cracked from Bill-Man's barricade, and there was a sharp spat and thud on the chest of Ounenk. He swayed backward and came forward again, a look of startled surprise on his face. He gasped, and his lips writhed in a grim smile. There was a shrinking together of the shoulders and a bending of the knees.
"She is worth a price," Neegah complained to the gathering by the council-fire, when the six white men were asleep. "She is worth a price, for we have more men than women, and the men be bidding high. The hunter Ounenk offered me a kayak, new-made, and a gun which he got in trade from the Hungry Folk. This was I offered, and behold, now she is gone and I have nothing!"
The old squaw raised the wail, and one by one the women joined her as they swung in behind. The men crawled out of their trenches and ran back to gather about Tyee, and it was noticed that the Sunlanders climbed upon their barricade to see. Ounenk halted, swept the blood from his eyes, and looked about. He strove to speak, but his dry lips were glued together.
Word Of The Day