|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 21
"Here cometh the she-wolf that hath devoured the food of our tribe,"
she wailed, intense bitterness in her voice. "Yea, by her cajolery she
persuaded our men to give unto the traders from the south our precious
food. And now we starve! Yea, she hath robbed us. She is as the
breath of winter, as the blackness of the night."
Along the line of wailing women Tongiguaq's reproach was suddenly taken
up. As Annadoah walked by them they did a strange thing. The natives
fear their dead--they never even mention their names. For possessed of
great power are the dead, and they can wreak, as befits their moods,
unlimited good or ill. Believing they could persuade the dead to array
themselves against Annadoah, the women took up Tongiguaq's denunciation
and reviled Annadoah in their weird chant to the departed. Annadoah
wrung her hands and wept. Bitter and jealous because the white chief
had selected her during his stay, their bosoms full of the harbored ill
will and envy of years because she had been the most desired by the
young men of the tribes, the women now invoked curses upon the deserted
and unprotected girl through the medium of the incorporeal powers.
The dread of it filled poor Annadoah's heart. She quailed at the
bitter execrations called upon her head. Instinctively her hand
reached through the opening of her _ahttee_ and she clutched at a piece
of old half-decayed skin. This was a remnant of her mother's father's
clothing, a amulet given her as a child, when saliva from the maternal
grandfather's mouth had been rubbed on her lips, and which she believed
protected her from ill fortune.
"Io-ooh! io-oh!" Annadoah moaned in pain.
The women forgot their own tragedies. They forgot the messages they
were imparting to the dead. Directly they might not be able to invoke
any effective curse upon Annadoah; but well they knew, indeed, the
awful power of the disembodied. And to the dead in the cold shuddering
sea they told how Annadoah had played with the men, how she had
betrayed them to the white traders, cajoling them to rob themselves of
food, and how, because of her, famine now confronted the tribe; they
told of the long devotion of Ootah, the desired of all the maidens, and
how Annadoah had rejected him.
Possessed by a frantic contagion of released rage, their voices rose
and fell in a frightful chanting malediction. In the weird gloom their
vague forms leaped about, their arms writhing like black things in the
air as they called the names of their individual dead to hear.
As their voices approached a crescendo they danced with increasing
hysteria. Some shrieked and fell to the ice groaning, their bodies
twisting in convulsions. Others laughed madly--laughed at the
dreadful horrors with which the dead would smite Annadoah. Losing all
control they were carried away by their delirious malevolence; their
voices reached a high shrill pitch. Their arms clawed the air.
Through the dead curses were invoked upon Olafaksoah, the great trader,
who had cowed them and robbed them. They begged of the _tornarssuit_
that he might be rended by wolves, that his body might rot unburied,
and that the spirits of his limbs might be severed and be compelled to
wander in restless torment forever. They called anathemas upon his
unborn children; and of their dead, who should be imprisoned in
darkness in the depths of the sea, they furiously invoked upon
Annadoah's offspring the curse of the long night . . . Their voices
shuddered over the ice as they demanded that most dreadful of all
dreaded evils--that Annadoah's child might be born as blind to light
and the joy of light as the dead in the sea.
Annadoah crouched in frantic terror upon the ice. From the Greenland
highlands a moaning echo answered the women. To Annadoah the hill
spirits had joined in cursing her--all nature seemed to upbraid her.
Tremblingly, with a last lingering hope, she crept on her knees to the
edge of the lane of lapping black water. She whispered a pathetic plea
to _Nerrvik_, the gentle queen of the sea, whose hand had been severed
by those she loved, and who felt great tenderness for men. Annadoah
listened.
"Thou art cold of heart to him who loves thee, Annadoah," a voice
seemed to whisper in the lapping waves. "Thou art beautiful as the
sun, but as _Sukh-eh-nukh_ shall thou be eternally sad. Thou shalt
lose because of thine own self the greatest of all treasures. That is
fate."
Far out on the open ocean spectral fire-flecks flashed like mast-lights
on swinging ships. These mysterious jack o' lanterns of the arctic are
caused by the crashing together of icebergs covered with phosphorescent
algae.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|