oo."
The people ceased from the quivering stone-pile they had builded, and
looked on.
"Nay, it was never my way, good Hooniah," Scundoo made answer,
reaching for the blankets. "In token that I am not hard, these only
shall I take."
"Am I not wise, my children?" he demanded.
"Thou art indeed wise, O Scundoo!" they cried in one voice.
And he went away into the darkness, the blankets around him, and
Jelchs nodding sleepily under his arm.
THE SUNLANDERS
Mandell is an obscure village on the rim of the polar sea. It is not
large, and the people are peaceable, more peaceable even than those
of the adjacent tribes. There are few men in Mandell, and many women;
wherefore a wholesome and necessary polygamy is in practice; the women
bear children with ardor, and the birth of a man-child is hailed with
acclamation. Then there is Aab-Waak, whose head rests always on one
shoulder, as though at some time the neck had become very tired and
refused forevermore its wonted duty.
The cause of all these things,--the peaceableness, and the polygamy,
and the tired neck of Aab-Waak,--goes back among the years to the time
when the schooner _Search_ dropped anchor in Mandell Bay, and when
Tyee, chief man of the tribe, conceived a scheme of sudden wealth. To
this day the story of things that happened is remembered and spoken
of with bated breath by the people of Mandell, who are cousins to the
Hungry Folk who live in the west. Children draw closer when the tale
is told, and marvel sagely to themselves at the madness of those who
might have been their forebears had they not provoked the Sunlanders
and come to bitter ends.
It began to happen when six men came ashore from the _Search_,
with heavy outfits, as though they had come to stay, and quartered
themselves in Neegah's igloo. Not but that they paid well in flour and
sugar for the lodging, but Neegah was aggrieved because Mesahchie, his
daughter, elected to cast her fortunes and seek food and blanket with
Bill-Man, who was leader of the party of white men.
"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!"
"I, too, did bid for Mesahchie," grumbled
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