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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (March 4, 1917)
TT TtVT ON'AOIAK, from much contemplation of the winter heav ens, was moved to make-an image of Koonagoyiak, the. Prose Devil. It was a labor attended with vast 3iffl mi v xnere was ttrst to be procured the ivory tusk f a walrus, young, that i might , carve well, and white, so that the great . frost Devil's shoe button eyes would I shine resplendent against his graven face, j - For days Oonagiak made the round of i the igloos in earch of ivory. Waipau. the hunter from Cape Alexander, had the , -best,i a twisted narwhale miik tusk, -white as the snow that swirled in from . i Klnzie Bay. ' i . But Waipau Vould not sell. He was j under the necessity of purchasing a new j wife jn the spring, when the garments i sewed by the recenUy deceased had be : come frayed and worn. Oonagiak envied t Waipau, but where white men have not j set the precedent the Kskimq is not much .t of a thief. And then, too, Waipau, the ; mighty, had a Hudson Bay musket, made j . in England in 1790, as was attested by the -inscription. It threw slugs of lead. . rock or orca teeth an enormous distance. !' ; Waipau creased his flat face in oily grins r and explained that beside a bride to sew ; . one's seal pelts into garments Oonagiak's proffer of two dogs and a blunt knife was : .as nothing. ; From wrinkled old Tookalak, mother f the intrepid young Nagwik, who was dragged under the ice floes of Potter "j Sound the preceding spring, Oonagiak I made a purchase. It was a heavy shaft j of ivory that had made its way from far j , Siberia, passing from hand to hand in j the Incessant bartering of the men of i; the frost horizon. I ' ; w Some Dtiluy t hunter from the distant j Bering" had chopped it out of an ice j mound where lay buried a long-haired mammoth. Eastward it trended, until j Nagwik, ranger afield, had purchased it. , He wanted it because Carney, the factor j at Lapierre, had desired an ivory gun- .stock to be fitted to his gold Inlaid rifle, j Nagwik wanted the rifle and shotgun of : fered in exchange. He had begun the preliminary carving from measurements j denoted by knots in a moosehide thong, j also acquired in trade. , - Then one misty March afternoon t Wakanah, the timid, had rushed across j the glaring ice floe wailing. The women ( took it up. There is no mistaking that wail. It signifies that one of the triWal I hunters returns no more. Tookalak, the jOld and wrinkled and toothless, did not , know of the factor's offer. SHE sold, the mammoth tusk to Oona giak for blubber, pelts nd soapstone j lamps. Oonagiag Isolated himself in the ! igioo constructed for the purpose and set j. about his labor. With the jellied blood ; of a musk ox he traced the outline of j; Koonagoyiak, the Frefet Devil,; who I pushes the sun under the; snows and sets , the northern lights to flaming in famine ;j time. ' ;i ; - Oonagiak didn't revere the Frost DeriL But he thought 'that the demon j of cold might be susceptible to flattery. tl be was, he might keep the noes mov- fag on Klnzie Bay aad make the hunting good. Uom in his igloo, lit with blubber ; barning smokfly from the. wisps f dried man in the soapstone bowl. , be. worked n the aged ivory. The old men of the f tribe whispered that he was undergoing the black fast, and that when his partic ular manltou had whispered he would emerge a medicine man. The young girls "of the tribe knocked against the walls of 4 his igloo and ran away with mocking Slaughter. The children stole quietly, by, lest the shadowy devils that Oonagiak supplicated, might rush out and eat them as blubber. Of the yeung girls of the tribe one at V THE SUNDAY FICTION MAGAZINE, MARCH 4, 1917 RED VALHALLA By Arthur James Hayes Illustrated by J. C. Shepherd TALE of the Viking El Dorado, interwoven with 1 I the love of two women and the deeds of men ma a 1 with jealousy and the lust for gold. S3 least wasn't disposed to laughter. She was Aganyik, the plumpest and prettiest lass of the Kinzie Bay village. Before . Nagwik had gone under the ice he had made her father presents. No other hav ing hunted so well, it followed that no rival coOld make as many presents as Nagwik. But with the mightiest hunter gone, hope had sprung anew into the hearts of the tribe's lotharios. THE race had narrowed to Oonagiak . and Teeshwinah. To Aganyik the ru mor that Oonagiak was becoming a med icine man was unpleasant. Medicine men are bound to no celibacy, but many of them scorn women as weakening the blood and making one ill fit to associate with the devils and manitous that are the true medicine man's chief advisors. If Oonagiak became a woman hater there remained only Teeshwinah. And in childhood a polar bear cub had scratched Teeshwinah. His flat face was crossed with ridges, heavy scars that the Eskimo custom of rubbing wounds with blubber oil and .wood ashes had made heavier and darker. Aganyik didn't like Teesh winah. But his purchasing power would decide the issue. Even now he was hunting. And if perchance he had come upon walrus ivory for spear and whip handles it was unthinkable! The idea brought a deject ed droop to the corners of the girl's lips and erased the smile that usually hovered over her round face. Into Oonagiak's igloo she pt, disregarding the oldest tradition of her tribe namely, that when men and devils conferred, In the self -ordaining ceremonies of the medicine man, no-woman is to intrude. Devils bate women. j Oonagiak was astonished when his musk ox pelt curtain wavered and un dulated and revealed Aganyik's head. She peered at him with her little eyes, bright with curiosity. Thjen she smiled i are a fool. Soon Teeshwinah comes back to buy me!" She spoke with downcast eyes, glanc ing up at him coyly. "Is that the way you wish it?" she queried. 'That I should make the eider down garments and keep the Igloo lamp burnings and seal meat bubbling for rieeshwmah?" Oonagiak pondered. With the ironr image of Koonagoyiak, with the shoe button eyes, he had a gift of priceless value. It would command from Agan yik's father all that he possessed. And his daughter was chief among his pos sessions. Yet half its merit lay in the surprise. To tell Aganyik was to at least avert a premature sale of her to Teesh winah, for walrus blubber and tusks. "1 talk to no devils." he said, -except Koonagoyiak. the great Frost DeviL One' need not be a medicine man to do that. Instead, I make for your father this, that he may have seal meat .in his old age." .From beneath the pelt of the white bear he triumphantly resurrected the likeness of the Frost Devil. Lopsided and snaggle toothed and gro tesque, the image might have been that of any devil in the category of disrep utable spirits. But into the sharp brows had been inserted the black shoe buttons. The open mouth was stained red with jellied walrus blood, and , the feet and hands were blackened with wood ashes. Around its neck was a necklace of raw bide, interwoven with, pink shells and flat blue colored atones. Eighteen inches high it stood, with arms nine inches and legs three inches in length. Oonagiak had hacked right lustily with thaontcher knife and cracked chisel the whaler's cook had given him. ADMIRATION flamed in the girl's lit tle eyes, and good humor restored tho smile to the flat, brown -visage. She poked a tentative finger at it and tasted NEXT "Militants in Marriage By Emily Calvin Blake Author of "Suzanna Stirs the Fire," "Story of a Mod ern Marriage Etc. Placatirigly. the creases of fat almost ''closing her eyes. . What do yon make medicine for?" she-asked. : . The young sculptor frowned. "A way!" he commanded. , "Leave, or the old women will wonder at your wails, ' like the musk calfn a blizzard!" He reached for his whip. . Aganyik was not intimidated. '"The whip is not for a woman's face," she chided. 'It is for her back. And, mine you cannot reach. Instead, we will talk. Teeshwinah hunts .the walrus In th bay. The old men say y0U are a medicine man. The young girls say you the jellied Uood from the snaggle toothed mouth. "It Is well,", she said. "With that an ne good luck to my father, and Aganyik to you. The sting of your whip win be better than the looks-of Teesh. winah's withered face! I go." Teeshwinah, triumphant bearer of walrus tusks and blubber, returned to .face the awful fact that the bartering value -of walrus ivory for beautiful fat damsels bad been altered by a new taste for the sculptured likenesses of frost devils. So said the old father of Agan yik. So said the fathers ef the other girls in the tribe. It was bad medicine. Oonagiak had made it. He repaired stormily to the girl s father. ' "Ivory is cheap," he said. "Old women can hunt it, if they like. That is why Oonagiak made his Frost Devil of the white, boiie. But if you sell Aganyik for that, then the sun has blinded your eyes and the arctic hare has nibbled your brains. I will make yon at better of fer!" He unbuckled his belt, with the bronze fcuckle. "See that?" he' said. "For It I have given much ivory. Yet it is small. It is scarce, for it Is red. Nevertheless I snaxi bring to you in four moons a Frost Devil twice as big as Oonagiak's, made of red metal. I shall make hist eyes green with the flashing fire I know of in the distant country. And when I come back with the red Koonagoyiak even the children will laugh at Oonagiak's ivory devil." j When one's hand has withered so it cannot grasp the harpoon, a fat daugh ter becomes an asset to bargain dearly. Aganyik's father pondered. .After all what was an ivory god when one could have a red devil of the metal that the whalers asked about for the same price? Aganyik didn't like Teeshwinah, and said so. But women's likes and dislikes are trifling things, to be bent to conform ity with the whistlin of the walrus hide whip. He silenced the girl's petulant re monstrances. fl!" he said. I shall wait four moons ' VJ and a day to see If you talk with the tongue of a liar. Then, If you speak the truth, shall go to you Aganyik, with my own ivory handled whip, that she may be made to cease lamenting and like yoor scarred face, If yOU come back with Frost Devil, with the flashing fire eyes, yon have done welL If you fail, the old women shall mock you from the igloos and the papooses pelt you with icicles. " Teeshwinah harnessed his dogs, nibbed more wet snow on the frozen mud runners of his sleigh, packed it well with blubber, and set forth. Oonagiak watched bis departure, sneering, and sayta h a loud voice that the white foxes would gnaw his bones before two moons were passed. Teeshwinah smiled, crinkling the black ridge, across his face. "Mr red Frost Devil," he said, "will eat yours, and the great Koonagoyiak will langn to think that the little Image of white bone was meant to buy Aganyik!" ' Four moons passed and Teeshwinah had not returned. "Ho is dead," said Aganyik. "He poke with the tongue of a fool. There Is not so mush red metal. The wolver. inea chew his heart and the wind whis tles through his ribs. Where Teeshwinah has gone is night and stars." Oonagiak exulted. Teeshwinah. mother set .up the death chant, and Jt rose through the frost stillness of the arctic night, increasing in volume as on igloo after another took it up. Far out on the trail, with the frost ghosts swirl ing about him, Teeshwinah heard. -Q for me," ho said to hi. dogs. -They wail for my. bones, bleach ing In the North." He laugHed and sent his whip cracking over tho hnoVW heads. "Jlush !" he said I go to bar a wife!" . Far out on the ice the other Vm-vt descried them and set up a maid yapptngi The wailing ceased. The men bf Oka tribe rushed out of the igloos, peering toward the creaking, groaning floe, f irt Bay. They set no a shouting hunter. me cnant of the .returning Teeshwinah had arrived. His face was thin and the skin stack 10 nis cneek bones and clung to the id lows of the Jaws until the utlinea of tha . u i4uuj tiiudiq, lie sta as he walked, and his dog. were tons in fur. But on the sleigh was